


Eye of the Beholder

by Kassykins



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, No Smut, Other, Story Driven, gets serious later on, includes swap and fellswap characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-11 06:05:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7879420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kassykins/pseuds/Kassykins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The brilliant Dr Alphys has created something never before seen in the Underground - a computer program that actually learns. Now in his own metal body, Mettaton is ready to learn everything there is to know about everything, to find himself and figure out his place in the world. But one should be careful what sources they choose to learn from: the movies on the TV are exciting, but when your brain is entirely digital, how do you discern between fantasy and reality? How can he convince Dr Alphys that he's become more than a pile of ones and zeros? And what does the preppy intern want from her?<br/>Mettaton wants more. He wants to learn more. He wants to see more. He wants to BE more.<br/>No matter what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introducing - Mettaton!

**Author's Note:**

> A small note about this work. It came about when I was wondering to myself 'what kind of movie would Mettaton make when he got to the surface?' This is immediately what I came up with. Instead of adding an annoying amount of OC's, however, I made use of swap Undyne (referred to as Undyne) and swapfell Undyne (referred to as Dr Fells). Others may appear in later chapters. This work is going to get dark in the last few chapters, but I'll post warnings when it comes to it.

 

The gathering was small – just the usual half-dozen journalists from the tech magazines, one or two of them independent bloggers, that one guy who sold the same story over and over under different pen names, and one or two disinterested interns from the larger new outlets who had ever intention of letting their Dictaphones listen to the presentation while they added 'technology and science correspondent' to their CV's. It wasn't big news, exactly, not yet. There were other teams working on almost the exact same concept, but they would be the ones to get it right, and when they did – well, they wouldn't be giving their news conferences from the basement of the fanciest hotel they could afford on the route straight out of the capital, that was for sure.

The networking settled down as the host, Dr Gaster, appeared at the ramshackle podium, explaining exactly what advancements had been made since the last time they called a conference. He could see the crowds eyes glazing over as he explained the technicals of this and that, how the programming had evolved, and what he thought it could all mean for the future of Monster-kind. Despite the importance of their work, Dr Gaster knew it would be difficult for the average monster to wrap their heads around without something they could visualise.

With that in mind, he turned to Dr Fells, who was stood beside him, and nodded. She took the small remote from the pocket of her pristine white lab coat and pressed the switch.

“Of course, a brain without a body is no use to anyone.” he went on “In order to really test the artificial intelligence programme to it's limits, it has to be able to interact with the world, to touch and feel and explore beyond the confines of the digital. With that in mind, everyone, please allow me to introduce you to – Mettaton!”

The door in the corner of the room opened with a little shudder, the imposing rectangular form rolling into view. Now, _this_ got the crowds attention, as the gathering of monsters jumped up, craning over each other to get a better look. They needn't strain themselves, as the robot was more than big enough for everyone to see, rolling up and stopping between Dr Gaster and Dr Fells. Dr Gaster tried to suppress his smug grin as the journalists all started taking pictures, bulbs flashing erratically. Dr Fells smiled for the camera, Mettaton completely unfazed.

“In this new metal body, designed by the brilliant Dr Alphys, our self-learning programme will be able to decide for itself what input it experiences, unconstrained by its previous digital limits!”

“Dr Gaster!” one journalist called above the crowd “Do you think having a physical body will help your programme to develop a soul?”

“That's what we're hoping.” he freely admitted “But now that Mettaton is able to move around under his own power, it's a brand new frontier for us as well!”

“Dr Alphys, you must be so proud of your creation!”

“As proud as a mother whose baby has just learned to walk.” Dr Fells answered “'Cautiously optimistic' would be the best term, I think.”

She flashed that brilliant smile of hers as the crowd descended into near hysterics, shouting over each other to have their questions heard.

_Finally_ , Dr Gaster thought to himself, _recognition!_

* * *

 

When the average monster thinks of a laboratory, they imagine pristine white or stainless steel surfaces, smart looking people sat around in lab coats, meticulously taking notes and peering into microscopes. The average monster had never met Dr Alphys, whose battered wood and metal work bench laboured under the weight of greasy machine parts, take-away containers and boxes of noodles, and whose free wall was covered not in a poster of the periodic table or weights and measures, but a large poster of a scantily-clad anime cat-girl. The average monster had never met Dr Alphys – and there was a reason for that.

“I had to pretend to be you _again_!” Dr Fells complained bitterly, disgust more than apparent on her face as the group returned from the press conference “It made my skin crawl to have to respond every time they called out 'Dr Alphys! Dr Alphys!' Tch!”

Dr Alphys, who hadn't even looked up from her desk when her office was burst into, remained unfazed.

“I dunno, didn't you make your name taking credit for other peoples work?” she replied, tone of deep-seeded bitterness clear in her voice.

“You-!”

“Ladies,” Dr Gaster interrupted as he sauntered in “Let's not have this argument again. Today was a resounding success! We should be celebrating!”

Dr Fells bared her teeth at Dr Alphys, who only side-eyed her dispassionately. The older woman seemed to calm herself down after a minute, pulling a compact out of her pocket to check her hair and make-up as Dr Gaster prattled on about... something. Neither woman was listening to him.

“You haven't forgotten, have you, Dr Alphys?” he finished.

“Hm?” realising her name had been called, she looked around “Forgotten?”

“The intern?” Dr Gaster prompted.

“Oh yeah.” she replied disinterestedly, turning back to her desk to fiddle with that she had been building “Starts in a few days, right?”

“Tomorrow, in fact!” he replied excitedly “She's super enthusiastic about working with you, so make sure you're nice to her okay?”

“Is she hot?”

“That's hardly the point.” Gaster grumbled.

“So... no?”

Gaster chose his words carefully, chewing them over in his mouth a moment.

“No sexual harassment in the lab.” he said simply “I'm going to compile a report about todays conference for everyone to read, so make sure you do!”

Gaster slipped out of the office before he could hear Alphys' disinterested 'sure'. Dr Fells, adjusting her pencil skirt to be its most flattering, turned her scornful eye back to Alphys.

“And fix this pile of crap, too!” she ordered, giving Mettaton a slap on the chassis “It just stood there the whole time, not saying anything like the big dumb lump that it is! I'm not entirely convinced this thing _can_ even talk!”

“He doesn't talk around you because he doesn't like you.” Alphys grumbled.

“Hmph! What does 'like' have to do with it?” she argued “Just fix it!”

With that, she turned on her heels and stomped out. Had the door to the office not been made of glass, she surely would have slammed it.

“Bitch.” Alphys grumbled, finishing her fiddling in her own time before turning to the waiting robot “So, how was your first time outside? Did you have fun?"

Mettaton computed a moment, the lights on his front flashing.

“I didn't understand.” he admitted, robotic voice completely devoid of all emotion “Why did Dr Fells pretend to be you?”

He noticed the flash of bitterness that crossed her face, evidently having touched on a very sore subject.

“Because Dr Fells is attractive and I'm not.” she spat.

“I don't understand.” Mettaton repeated.

“In this world, you're judged first and second on your appearance.” she sighed “And if you're really unlucky, third as well. Dr Fells may be a bitch, but she's gorgeous: slim, long legs, clean blue scales, perfect hair... people listen to her just because she looks like that. Then there's me: dumpy legs, uneven scales, buck teeth... no-one would ever listen to me, certainly not a room full or reporters. I hate to admit it, but for the sake of our funding, it's better for Dr Fells to be 'Dr Alphys' to the public.”

“You seem unhappy about this.” Mettaton noted.

Dr Alphys didn't reply.

“Putting that aside, what else did you learn?”

“The flashing lights on the camera caused 8 faults in minor systems.” he reported.

“What?! Why didn't you start with that?!” she scolded “What systems, for how long?! Urgh, get on the table.”

Mettaton did as instructed, rolling over the only clear spot in the room. Dr Alphys hit the release on the pulley by the back cupboard door, the work table thundering down from the ceiling with the clattering of chains. The table stopped abruptly a foot from the ground, swinging a moment before Mettaton steadied it, climbing on top. Alphys grabbed her toolbox and dragged her stool over, grumbling to herself as she took off the robots front plate.

“Put the radio on or something.” she ordered him “This is going to take a while.”

There was a whirr deep inside Mettaton. After a second, music started to emanate deep from within his workings.

* * *

 

There was a knock on the glass door. Dr Alphys looked up, turning her blowtorch off and lifting the safety goggles from her eyes. A pretty girl stood on the other side, smiling excitedly. She looked preppy. Putting her torch down fully, Alphys beckoned her in.

“Hi!” the girl greeted, exactly as enthusiastic as she looked “Dr Alphys?”

“Speaking.” she confirmed.

“Oh my god, hi!” she repeated “I'm Undyne Swap, I'm your new intern!”

“You're eager, aren't you?” Alphys noted “Don't you start tomorrow?”

“It is tomorrow.” the janitor informed her as he came in to empty the bin “You didn't go home again, darlin'”

“Thank you, Sans.” Alphys grumbled.

“Mornin', square face.”

“Good morning, Sans.” Mettaton replied.

The little skeleton bid them goodbye and bustled back out with the rubbish. Ms Swap looked after him in wonder.

“That's Sans.” Alphys told her, jumping down from her stool and wiping her greasy hands on a rag “You'll be seeing a lot of him.”

Ms Swap gave a little laugh. She bounced a little on her heels as she turned back to Alphys.

“Oh my god, I am so super psyched to meet you finally!” she said “I've been following your work for years. You're, like, my inspiration!”

“Oh... well, thank you.” Alphys replied, feeling her cheeks flush “What's your major?”

“Robotics.” she replied “I think it was my paper on clean energy solutions that got Dr Gasters attention, though.”

“Oh, you wrote that? That paper was pretty good.”

Ms Swaps light blue scales went dramatically darker as she blushed. _Oh my god_ , Alphys thought, _this girl is absolutely adorable_. Too bad she was so much older... This girl was the same kind of monster as Dr Fells, but was too young to have her womanly elegance, stuck somewhere between gangly adolescence and fleshed-out adulthood. She was so damn cute in those glasses, too...

Alphys pushed the thought down, feeling somewhat predatory. Pretty girl... there's no way she'd be any good. Probably coasted through school on her looks. Well, there were no free rides in Alphys' workshop.

“Alright rookie, let's see what you're made of.” she announced “Grab a dust coat from the cupboard and get your hands in the chassis.”

“Y-yes!” she replied excitedly, practically dropping her folders “I'm so honoured! A-and please, call me Undyne!”

* * *

 

Alphys was pleasantly surprised – Undyne was pretty good, and what she didn't know, she was willing to learn. She listened intently as Alphys explained Mettatons inner workings to her, asking questions and taking notes where appropriate. Mettaton, who was always shy around strangers, remained silent.

“He's shy?!” Undyne gasped “Oh my god, that's amazing! How did that happen?!”

“Well... perhaps calling him 'shy' is a bit much.” Alphys confessed, chopsticks poking around in her box of noodles “He doesn't have much experience with people who don't work at the lab, and he's programmed to observe people in order to learn about them.”

“Oh yeah?”

Undyne swivelled around on the spare stool to look at Mettaton, who stood watching them.

“What have you learned about me?!” she asked.

The robot just looked at her a moment, almost like he was picking his words.

“You're very enthusiastic.” he said.

“Hell yeah! That's awesome! What else?!”

“You're left handed.”

“That's true!”

“You're a fish-type monster, most likely from the Waterfall region. You're long sighted. Your hair is 20cm long. Your BMI is-”

“Mettaton!” Alphys interrupted “It's rude to bring up a womans weight!”

A light on Mettatons front flashed.

“Noted.” he replied.

“Wow.” Undyne laughed “That's cool. I dig your voice! Oh, but...”

Undyne gave Mettaton a good look before turning back to Alphys, who was tapping the bottom of her box to loose the stuck noodles.

“Why 'he'?” she asked “Aren't most machines considered to be female?”

“Initially, he was.” Alphys admitted “Mettaton himself said he was a boy: it was the first time he showed self-awareness, so of course we encouraged him.”

“Really? That's interesting...”

“Permission request.” Mettaton said suddenly.

Realising he was talking to her, Undyne got excited again.

“Y-yeah? What is it?”

“May I touch your hair?” he asked, raising his hands.

“Sure!”

She took her hair down to make it easier for him, looking a little nervous as he started to examine it.

“Dr Fells won't let me near her hair.” Mettaton told her “No-one else here has any. It's soft.”

“Glad you like it.” Undyne laughed.

“Dr Alphys.”

“Hm?”

Mettaton released Undynes hair, holding up his hands.

“I don't think the sensors in my hands are suitably calibrated. I gathered almost no data from that interaction.”

“Yeah, your hands are pretty bad.” Alphys admitted “They were a rush job for the press conference. I'm working on a better pair, so just bear with it for now. Stick to things that aren't so delicate.”

Mettaton responded by turning back to Undyne and poking her in the cheek. Thankfully, this just made her laugh.

“What are you doing, man?” she asked as he started running the tips of his fingers over her face.

“Gathering data.” he told her “Your scales are small and delicate. They change colour when touched.”

“Dude, this is kind of weird.” Undyne confessed as she got more uncomfortable.

“He'd never been outside until yesterday.” Alphys reminded her “He's getting more assertive the more he learns.”

“Even so...” Undyne said, leaning away from the robots touch.

“Mettaton, stop that.” Alphys ordered “She doesn't like it.”

He did as he was told, rolling over to Alphys and examining her scales instead.

“You can't just go around touching people.” she scolded him “It's creepy.”

“I asked for permission.” he reminded her.

“Even so, you need to learn to read a persons face and body language. People speak with more than just their words.”

“Noted.”

Despite her words, she made no moves to stop his examination of her. Undyne chuckled nervously.

“I guess you're used to it, huh?” she said.

“Pretty much. He's always been pretty handsy. Ever since he got hands, anyway.”

* * *

 

Dr Alphys acted in an affectionate manner towards Undyne. Her body temperature fluctuated whenever she was given compliments, or when Undyne bent over. Undyne displayed a great amount of energy and enthusiasm, which Dr Alphys reacted positively to.

Mettaton didn't like her. He wasn't sure why. He needed further data.

Dr Alphys had gone home for the night, as had most of the other staff. The light was still on under Dr Gasters door, but Mettaton didn't find him interesting to talk to. He rolled around the pristine hallways, glancing into the empty glass rooms. Nothing inside looked interesting to him – he knew all the experiments that were being performed by the other scientists, who was making what part of his body, who kept what in their drawers... it was boring. He wanted something new.

He rolled around to the lift, pressing the button. He had never used one before his trip outside, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. Unfortunately, the other floors were full of nothing but locked doors: Dr Alphys had gotten mad at him the last time he had broken open a lock – something about privacy – so he didn't push his luck.

Finally, he came down to the lobby. The lobby of the building was very fancy, with a great glass front and shiny, clean floors. He wasn't allowed to leave the building, but it wouldn't hurt him to take a look... As he got closer to the door, he heard a couple of voices arguing.

“I swear Sans, your boondoggling is going to get you in trouble!” a high-pitched voice scolded “You're so lazy! I can't even trust you to watch the monitors without falling asleep!”

“Relax, bro.” a voice he recognised as Sans replied “It's not like anyone ever breaks in.”

“That's not the point! We have to be ready!”

The high pitched voice let out a frustrated groan, and Mettaton could hear a tapping on the ground.

“I'm going on patrol!” they announced “At least _try_ to stay awake until I get back!”

“Dunno, bro, I'm bone tired.”

The other person groaned again, stomping off. Apparently they were pretty quick, as they were gone by the time Mettaton reached the security desk. He wasn't very fast... Sans sat at the desk, dressed in a security uniform, with his feet up on the counter, yawning widely as he watched a small monitor on his desk.

“Hey there, square face.” Sans greeted “Out for a midnight roll?”

“I don't understand.” Mettaton said “I understood that you were the janitor.”

“What, you never heard of a guy with two jobs?”

“I haven't.”

“Huh... I forget you're pretty much a newborn.”

“My physical body was first assembled five months ago. I existed as a digital intelligence two years before that.”

“Oh yeah? What did you learn as a 'digital intelligence'?”

“Science. Mathematics. Engineering.”

“Sensible things.” Sans teased, taking a bottle ketchup from his jacket pocket “Well, now you're corporeal you can learn some fun things too. Roll around here and watch some TV with me.”

Mettaton did just that, positioning himself behind Sans so he could see the little monitor.

“If there's anything you don't understand, just ask me.” Sans offered “TV this time of night can be pretty out there.”

Despite his offer, Sans soon fell asleep, leaving Mettaton alone with the television.

He watched a game show.

He watched the news.

He watched a movie.

 

He liked TV.

 


	2. Late Night Viewing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took a long time to get out, but work's been crazy. Many thanks to those of you who have left kudos or nice comments on the first chapter! I hope this one meets your expectations!

“And so the clownfish said, 'with friends like these, who needs anemones?'”

“That is truly the worst joke I have ever heard.”

“Oh come on, at least laugh a little!”

Alphys didn't even crack a smile, focused on her computer screen, claws tapping rapidly as she coded. On the other side of the room, Undyne swivelled left and right on her stool, eyeing the older scientists back as she eagerly vied for her approval.

“Where did you even hear a joke so terrible?” Alphys asked, throwing her a bone.

“Believe it or not, I heard it from Mettaton!” she confessed “I wonder where he heard it?”

“Probably one of those old science books I gave him to read.” Alphys supposed “Some of those are pretty corny.”

“Mettaton reads books?” Undyne asked, surprised “Why doesn't he just look stuff up on the undernet? Surely that would be quicker, especially for him-”

“Mettaton isn't connected to the undernet, and he's not going to be.” Alphys said sternly “He's not allowed to watch tv either.”

“How come?”

Alphys stopped typing for a moment, turning to Undyne with a serious face.

“Undertube comment section.” she said simply.

“W.... yeah, but....”

“Fox Monster News.”

“Even so-”

“Mon-chan.”

“That's an extreme-”

“Tumblr.”

“I'm starting to see a pattern.” Undyne admitted.

“The undernet is full of bias opinions and misinformation.” Alphys elaborated “Mettatons programming is in it's infancy – he's like a child, with no life experience to filter information through. We've got to be especially careful what input he gets, at least until he's able to discern lies from the truth.”

“So... no anime?”

Alphys noticeably twitched, turning back to her computer.

“No, no anime.” she grumbled, resuming her typing.

Dr Alphys was cute. Grumpy, but cute. Undyne was starting to develop more than a little crush on her mentor. She was smart, and cute, and really good at teaching, and the way she stuttered when she was flustered was so... _wow_... Undyne shook her head, long red hair falling out of the messy bun and temporarily blinding her. She couldn't let herself get carried away: this was her important internship that she fought hard for, she had to take advantage of the learning experience, not her colleagues... No, bad Undyne! Focus!

She slapped her cheeks, taking a moment to retie her hair, and leapt up from her stool, grabbing the empty mugs from the table.

“Do you want a drink?” she asked “A cup of tea?”

“Soda.” Alphys answered, still typing “If you see Mettaton, tell him that his update is nearly ready.”

“Ok. BRB.”

Undyne slipped out the door, walking along to the corridor to the staff kitchen. She still wouldn't get over how fancy this place was, with its glass walls and lab equipment and computers on every surface. The whole place shined with future and potential, and she loved it. She wasn't just messing around with her laptop in her room any more, flicking through ancient coding books that she found at the dump... she was at the forefront of underground technology now. It was so exciting, so glorious!

Speaking of glorious, there was Dr Fells, talking with a couple of the other scientists in one of the labs, white coat absolutely pristine. Dr Fells was probably the most beautiful person Undyne had ever seen, and she didn't just think that because they were the same kind of monster – she had perfect hair, perfect scales, full red lips, clear yellow eyes, she dressed immaculately to show off her perfect body while still looking completely professional... she was gorgeous with a capital 'g'. Until she opened her mouth, that is, and a torrent of bile and abuse fell out. Undyne hoped she might look like her one day, but she sure as hell didn't want to be like her. She was like Alphys' complete opposite: she wasn't much to look at, but Undyne enjoyed spending time with her. She wanted to spend time with her outside of the the lab...

Undyne smiled in a friendly manner as she passed Dr Gaster, who floated down the hall in that airy-fairy way of his. Legend told that he was a great scientist in his day – he had created the core, after-all – but his day was a very long time ago, and these days he sometimes forgot what day it was... He spent most of his time in his office, doing... something. Everyone knew Dr Fells was the one really running the place. Apparently, those two skeletons who worked security were his sons, and they took the job to keep an eye on him. Undyne thought it was probably time he retired, but he picked her for the internship, so she couldn't question his decisions that much.

Undyne got to the kitchen, where Mettaton was cutting up vegetables, bopping up and down as if dancing to music only he could hear.

“Hey, Metta.” Undyne greeted “Whatcha up to?”

“Hello, darling.” Mettaton greeted “I'm experimenting. How are you?”

“'Darling'?” Undyne noted, chuckling slightly.

“It's a term of endearment.” Mettaton explained, the way he shook his non-knife wielding hand suggesting he was excited to impart this information “A way to refer to someone close to you without using their name!”

“Did you read the dictionary?” Undyne laughed.

“I did, yes.” Mettaton admitted, back still to her as he went back to cutting his vegetables.

Undyne tried her best to suppress her smile as she made her way to the fridge – it was clear to see what mannerisms he picked up off his creator.

“So I just heard from Dr. Alphys that you're not allowed to watch tv.” Undyne mentioned “That kinda sucks. Do you feel like you're missing out?”

Mettaton stopped cutting a moment, turning her direction ever so slightly. Just as Undyne noticed the motion, it stopped.

“Not really.” he told her “There's nothing on television that I can't learn in a book. For example, did you know that snails sometimes flip their digestive systems? Interesting, no?”

“Yeah, I think I saw that on some game show the other day.” she thought, finally finding Dr Alphys' fizzy drinks amongst the lunches and lab samples (which, really, shouldn't have been right next to the food...).

“I read it somewhere.” Mettaton told her “I don't remember where.”

“That's cool. Anyway, Alphys says your update is ready.”

“I wonder what it is.” the robot pondered, looking at the knife he held “I hope it's new hands. I can't hold a knife very well in these ones.”

“I think it's software.” Undyne admitted “But you can ask Dr Alphys about new hands.”

Not much caring for fizzy drinks, Undyne put the kettle on, washing out her mug as it boiled. She hadn't noticed Mettaton had stopped chopping, instead inspecting his reflection in the shiny metal of the knife.

“Undyne?”

“Hm?”

“Am I... attractive?”

Undyne was honestly taken aback for a moment. Mettaton thought about things like this? Then again, Dr Alphys clearly had a chip on her shoulder in regards to her appearance, and who could blame her when she worked with Dr Fells... Mettaton might have picked up on some of that self-loathing...

What should she say? Surely, as an adult, she had a responsibility to instil confidence in those younger than her? Mettaton was a learning program, afterall.

“H-hell yeah!” she enthused, slapping his back “You're, like, the sexiest rectangle I've ever met! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, not even yourself!”

Mettaton paused for a moment, lights on his front flashing as he computed.

“Heh.” he said finally “Thanks, Undyne.”

“No sweat, dude.” she assured “You gotta believe in yourself! You're your own biggest fan, right?”

As the kettle finished boiling, Mettaton finally put the knife down, lights flashing unseen on his front.

“Thanks for the pep-talk.” he said again “I'll go see Dr Alphys about that update. I'll see you later.”

* * *

 

Dr Alphys sat on one side of the table. To her right was Sans, to her left Undyne. On the other side of the table, Mettaton observed their exchange as they ate a large pizza, chatting and laughing about various topics. Dr Alphys had always spoken easily with Sans, sometimes all night, especially when her serotonin levels were particularly low. His bad jokes and easy company always increased her endorphins level.

He made her happy. She smiled more when he was around, was more relaxed. Mettaton had observed them together many times, and it seemed clear to him that the two had known each other a long time. They spoke about many personal things when they were alone: Mettaton had first learned what a 'secret' was after being told not to repeat anything they said to each other to anyone else.

Even when Alphys was alone with Mettaton, she wasn't as relaxed or happy as she was when she was with Sans. He wondered how long he would have to know her before that was the case. Sans made her smile. Alphys didn't smile often. Mettaton wanted to make her smile.

“Too bad he _pasta_ way.” Sans finished, pausing for applause before putting another slice of pizza in his mouth.

Alphys snorted inelegantly, covering her full mouth with her hand as she chuckled at the bad joke. Undyne smiled patiently, clearly a little bored as she nursed a bottle of beer. It was late, and practically everyone else had gone home. Why was Undyne still here? Go home already!

“Do you remember that time,” Dr Alphys started, still giggling a little “When Papyrus was about 12, and I was staying at your place that weekend-”

“And we had that pun off.” Sans finished knowingly “Yeah, y'know I think he's still mad. Some times he just goes 'ugh!' out of nowhere.”

Alphys laughed again, but was interrupted by the desk phone ringing. With a grumpy huff, she looked behind her to the display, seeing Dr Fells name flash up. She kept grumbling as she hit the speaker phone.

“What?” she answered.

“The wi-fi is down.” Dr Fells replied just as abruptly “I'm waiting for an important email. Fix it.”

“I'm busy.” Alphys argued.

“You're eating pizza with your idiot and the intern.” she pointed out “I can _see_ you.”

Sure enough, across the floor, Dr Fells was in her office, stood up with her mobile in her hands, staring right at them. Alphys all but growled as she hung up the phone, getting up from her stool.

“God damn glass walls.” she grumbled “No bloody privacy in this place. I've got a PhD, I'm not the bloody IT guy.”

Sans just chuckled as Alphys went to the back cupboard, a waft of super-cooled air flowing out as she opened it. Inside, the mainframe buzzed and glowed gently, casting a serene light across the lab. Undyne, clearly curious as all hell, started to get up from her stool, but was stopped by Mettatons hand on her shoulder.

“Don't even think about it, sweetheart.” Sans told her “Authorized personnel only. In there is Mettatons entire heart and mind, the culmination of years of work. One stray static charge from that lovely hair of yours and the whole thing could get wiped.”

“Y-yikes...” Undyne replied, sitting back down.

After a moment, Alphys re-emerged from the server room, looking pointedly at Dr Fells, who was still watching them. After taking a moment to make sure the wifi had connected on her phone, she put it back to her ear. The phone in the office rung again.

“Oh my god, what now?!” Alphys barked as she answered it.

“Um... I'm sorry?” Papyrus' voice replied.

“Papy.... I'm sorry...” Alphys backtracked, casting Sans an apologetic look “What did you need?”

“There's someone here who says she looking for her sister.” Papyrus explained uncertainly “Do you have an 'Undyne' working up there?”

“Ah!” Undyne exclaimed, scales flushing deep blue as she practically leapt up “I told her not to come!”

There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the phone.

“What time do you think it is, punk?!” a demanding voice yelled down the phone “It's time to get your ass home!”

“I'm not a little kid!” Undyne yelled back “I'll go home when I want to!”

“That's it, I'm coming up!”

“Don't come up!”

“Hey bones, which way's the office?”

After a little more shuffling, the phone hung up. Undyne flustered and started grabbing all the beer bottles, empty or not, throwing them in the cupboard and slamming it shut.

“I'm guessing older sister.” Sans chuckled.

“I don't understand.” Mettaton admitted “Why are you panicking?”

“Because-!” Undyne started.

“Surprise, punk!”

The entire group startled as another monster suddenly appeared at the door, looking slightly sweaty. She and Undyne were very clearly sisters, maybe even twins, but the newcomer was taller, buffer, and rougher looking, wearing the training uniform of the royal guard and a patch over her left eye.

“Dee, how did you get here so fast?!” Undyne cried.

“I took the stairs!”

“Go home!”

“What's that, you brat?!”

The older sister marched forward, grabbing the younger one by the arm, not so roughly that it was aggressive, but it was definitely clear which one of them was in charge.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous is it for a young woman to walk home alone this time of night?!” she demanded to know “Especially someone as skinny and oblivious as you are?! No sister of mine is becoming a crime statistic!”

Mettaton stopped paying attention to the pushy fish as he noticed the expression on Dr Alphys' face: her mouth hung open, her pupils dilated. Mettatons scanners indicated she was experiencing a sudden surge of endorphins and adrenaline. He had never seen Dr Alphys behave in such a manner. Sans seemed to have noticed too, as he smiled slyly, picking up one of the last slices of pizza.

“Heh.” he said quiet enough for only him and Alphys to hear “Stop drooling, perv.”

“I am not drooling!” Alphys hissed back, quickly correcting her obvious staring.

“So which of these nerds is Dr Alphys?” Dee asked, bringing them back to the conversation.

“T-T-that would be me.” she answered, Mettatons sensors registering a sudden rise in her core temperature as she stood from her stool “P-pleasure to meet you.”

“Wow...” Dee responded, blushing a little as she looked down at her.

“Dee!” Undyne practically screeched “No!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Dee dismissed her sister, still looking at Alphys “Don't tell me you were planning on walking home alone as well.”

“No-one's going to attack me.” Alphys similarly dismissed derisively.

“Nonsense!” Dee declared loudly, making everyone jump “Don't be so lackadaisical with your personal safety! Especially when you're mentoring impressionable young girls like my sister!”

“I am not an 'impressionable young girl!” Undyne argued, her protests falling on deaf ears.

“Pretty young girls should be careful at night.” Alphys agreed “But I'll be fine.”

It seemed to take a second to click in the older sisters head exactly what Alphys had said, but when it had, she actually looked angry.

“That's it!” she declared “I'm turning this pizza party around!”

“Dee, no...” Undyne all but begged “I'm at work...”

“Not this time of night you aren't! Ladies, grab your bags, I'm escorting you home right this second!”

“Not in front of Alphys...”

“Now, punk!”

Despite her protestations, Undyne slunk away to get her coat and bag. Alphys looked at Dee incredulously.

“Seriously?” she laughed.

“Seriously.” she answered “As a member of the royal guard, I consider it my duty! None of us are leaving here alone tonight!”

Mettaton expected Dr Alphys to start arguing with her, the way she did when Dr Fells became similarly demanding. Sure enough, the two stared each other down for a few moments, neither backing down. To his surprise, however, Dr Alphys laughed through her nose, her posture relaxing.

“Yes, _officer._ ” she relented “I'll go get my bag.”

* * *

 

Mettaton watched the security screen as Sans got comfortable, putting his feet up at his station. He watched as Undyne and Dr Alphys left with that royal guardsman, disappearing beyond the cameras vision.

“I don't understand.” Mettaton admitted “Why didn't Dr Alphys argue? Why did she leave with her? Her temperature and heart rate both increased... the only rational conclusion: Dr Alphys must be unwell.”

Sans laughed, wiggling his butt into his chair as he put his hands behind his head.

“She's not sick.” he told him “She's got the hots for her.”

“'The hots'?”

“Yeah, it means she's got a thing for her.” Sans elaborated “She fancies her. She gets her hot and bothered.”

Mettaton computed a moment.

“I didn't understand any of that.” he admitted.

Sans thought a moment.

“You know Dr Hive?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“She loves those trashy romance novels.” Sans revealed “Her lower desk drawer is full of them. She won't mind if you read a couple, as long as you put them back when you're done. They should tell you everything you need to know about romance, kiddo.”

Before Mettaton could ask Sans how he knew that, his younger brother sprinted up to him, smart shoes clacking against the hard marble floor as he ran.

“Sans!” he called “I can't find dad anywhere! Is he on the cameras?”

“Huh? Oh man, not again.” Sans sighed, taking his feet off the counter and staring seriously into the CCTV screens “When is he gonna admit he has a problem? Sorry, squareface, but I gotta deal with this. Go watch a movie or something.”

Mettaton felt annoyed at being dismissed, but rolled away anyway. This wasn't the first time everything had been disrupted because Dr Gaster had gotten lost. They once found him inside a cupboard, just sat on a bucket humming to himself. Another time they found him asleep under a table. Here and there in the labs were books and papers Dr Gaster had supposedly written long ago, but Mettaton honestly couldn't imagine they were by the same person who wasn't allowed to use sharp scissors anymore...

Just as Sans had said, Dr Hive's bottom desk drawer was full of novels, all of which had a bright pink spine and a flowery title. 'The Eternal Heart.' 'Never Give You Up.' 'Notes About You.' 'Love Begins.' Could he really learn anything from these? Picking one up at random, he started to flick through.

He wasn't sure how long it was later that he stopped reading, attention caught by his batteries reaching critical levels. Mettaton was now sat on the floor, leaning on his side, surrounded by the books. It was amazing how many Dr Hive could fit in her desk drawer. Picking himself up, he rolled haphazardly to Dr Alphys office to plug himself in, accidentally knocking over one of the plastic plants in his drowsiness.

He hated this time of night. Hated the quietness and stillness of it. He didn't need to sleep, and rebooting was such a pain to do that he didn't bother shutting down. Once he had managed to plug himself in, surroundings lit only by the glow coming from his faceplate, he sat himself down and prepared for hours of boredom. From here, he got a perfect view of the rest of the lab, the sight of which used to fascinate him, but now... it was boring. Everyone had gone home.

Well, almost everyone. The light was still on in Dr Fells office. She usually did work late, but even for her it was beyond time to go home. Curious what she was doing, he looked over, solving the mystery of where Dr Gaster had gone as well, as he saw his familiar dark clothes against the stark white walls of the office.

Dr Fells was there too. The two were standing very close to one another, Dr Gaster running his fingers through Dr Fells loose hair. It took a moment of watching for Mettaton to realise what they were doing. Had he not just been reading Dr Hive's novels, he might not have known at all: it was definitely what they would call a 'passionate embrace.'

Mettaton turned down the lights on his front plate. He didn't, however, stop looking.

 


	3. Privacy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this chapter, but... y'know, LIFE.

“I'm starting to think I shouldn't take a leaf out of your book.” Dr Hive pondered to Dr Alphys as the two of them walked along the path on the way to work “My son is really into his videogames, and I'm worried about those violent ones I've been hearing about.”

“I'm sure your son will be just fine.” Alphys assured “He wasn't born yesterday, he knows the difference between right and wrong.”

“But you wouldn't let Mettaton play them.” she pointed out.

“Mettaton still has trouble picking up on metaphors.” Alphys reminded her “Fiction, reality, virtual reality, it's all the same to him. Your son knows better.”

“I guess.” Dr Hive relented, sighing as the glass doors of the building slid open before them “Still, as a mother, I feel I should regulate it somehow anyway.”

“Probably.” Alphys supposed as they swiped their key cards “Fourteen is an impressionable age.”

As they entered the lab, they were almost knocked to the ground by Dr Fells, who stormed past them in the flurry of perfume-scented rage.

“Good morning, Dr Fells.” Dr Hive greeted anyway.

“ _Good_?!” Dr Fells snapped back, rounding on them like a tormented pitbull “There's nothing good about it!”

“What's wrong?” Alphys asked.

“These god damn glass walls!” she cried “There's no privacy in this place!”

Dr Fells face was positively scarlet, which, considering she had blue scales, was quite the feat. Before Alphys or Dr Hive could ask what had happened, a snickering caught their attention. A few of their male colleagues were looking at a photograph, giggling to each other and chancing furtive glances at Dr Fells.

Said doctor stormed forward, snatching the photo and tearing it to pieces before once again storming off to the only place in the whole lab without glass walls – the bathroom. The men burst out laughing, pushing and cajoling each other away.

“What on earth?” Dr Hive muttered.

With a trundle of his cleaning trolley, Sans appeared, looking quite displeased himself.

“What's going on?” Alphys asked.

“Take a look for yourself.” Sans grumbled, taking a non-torn-up photo out of his trolley and handing it to her “These were everywhere this morning. Not just in here, but the other floors as well.”

Alphys looked at the picture, immediately understanding why Dr Fells was so upset – it seems that she and Dr Gaster had had a rather passionate encounter – passionate enough that Alphys now knew she had a tattoo of a golden flower on her left hip – and someone had caught it on camera. Looking around, she could see some were still pasted up on the walls, Papyrus awkwardly trying to pry them off without looking at their contents.

“Someone decided to be a classy fucker.” Alphys noted, ripping up the photo and shoving it back in the trolley “I'll check the check the logs in the printer, see if the order came from a computer in our lab.”

“Someone's fired.” Dr Hive agreed, huffy and indignant on Dr Fells' behalf “I'll go make sure she's okay.”

“I'll come see you once I'm done with this.” Sans promised “The old man's been in his lab all morning – don't mention this to him, okay?”

* * *

 

“I don't understand.” Mettaton admitted “I thought you didn't like Dr Fells?”

“Yeah, you guys hate each other.” Undyne agreed “Why are you suddenly on her side?”

Alphys wanted to snap at Undyne, but she held her tongue: she was young, she probably still thought that life was fair, and hard-work was all you needed to succeed. Alphys remembered what it was like to be like that.

“Whatever problems Dr Fells and I may have – personal or professional – 'slut shaming' is unforgivable. You notice no-one's saying anything about Dr Gaster? He was in those photo's, but it's only Dr Fells who's being shamed.”

“I guess...” Undyne mumbled, fingering her mug.

“You'll learn as you get older.” Alphys assured her, turning in her chair a moment to look at the young monster “This isn't school anymore, the professional world is very cut-throat. Science is a male-dominated industry, and women aren't going to succeed by throwing each other under the bus.”

“Yeah, but Dr Fells doesn't do you any favours, does she?” Undyne pointed out “Why should you be the bigger woman?”

“You're clearly too young to understand.” Alphys finished “Give it a few years, you'll see.”

“I don't understand.” Mettaton repeated “Isn't it normal to want to humiliate your rival?”

“Who taught you about something like that?” Alphys asked “And who says we're rivals?

“Isn't that just the way it is?”

“You sounds like you've been reading Dr Hive's trashy novels.” she criticised “That's just not realistic. Live is more complicated than that.”

Undyne and Mettaton looked at each other, neither really fully understanding. Alphys let out an aggravated 'tch!'

“The printer history has been wiped.” she confirmed “That pretty much confirms it was someone in this office.”

Undyne physically shuddered.

“I don't want to think that that kind of pervert is working here.” she said.

“Me neither.” Alphys agreed, “I'm going to have to look through the login files from last night. Whoever did this knew how to cover their tracks, so that excludes a few people from my suspects list.”

“It does?” Mettaton asked.

“Not all scientists are good with computers.” she explained to him “Dr Hive is a biologist – brilliant at what she does, but can barely use a word processor.”

“I see...”

“Sorry, you two, but until I've got this sorted everything else is on hold – why don't you go amuse yourselves? I come get you when there's work to do.”

“Sure, we understand.” Undyne confirmed, getting up from her low stool and grabbing her bag “Let's go hang in the break-room for a while, Metts.”

Mettaton duly followed her out the door, looking all around as he rolled behind her.

“Something on your mind?” she asked him.

“I'm realising.” he replied “There are different types of people.”

“True dat.” Undyne agreed “The world's made up of heroes and villains.”

“How do you know which you are?”

Undyne stopped by the break-room door, thinking about the question for a moment.

“I... I guess everyone's the hero in their own story?” was all she could think of.

The lights on Mettatons front flashed a moment, but her remained silent. He followed Undyne as she settled into the break-room sofa, wiggling her butt to get comfortable, and pulled out her laptop. He settled himself down on the floor beside her, retracting his wheel so he sat flat on the floor.

“This is sitting, not hanging.” he noted.

“It's just an expression.” Undyne laughed “It means we're going to spend time together doing something fun.”

“On your laptop? Are we going to code?”

“Nah, that's work, not fun. Dr Alphys said you can't watch TV, but she said nothing about movies! I've got like half a million on my hard-drive, I'm sure I can find one that's suitable for you. Ooh, 'Legally Blonde'! You'll love that one! Or maybe 'Phantom of the Opera'!”

“I look forward to whatever you pick.”

 

* * *

 

Dr Fells was a difficult woman bring down. Proud, fierce, intelligent, she was usually a force to be reckoned with. Today, however, she was hurt. She sat on the low stool in Dr Alphys lab, wrapped up in a chunky cardigan that belonged to Dr Gaster that hid her enviable figure, and stared miserably at her tea, eyes red and puffy. Dr Hive sat beside her, occasionally rubbing her arm sympathetically, and Dr Alphys continued to search through the login files from last night.

“Whoever did this, I'll make sure they never work in research science again!” Dr Fells sobbed.

“This was so unfair.” Dr Hive agreed “After everything you two have been through...”

“He actually remembered last night.” she went on “About the engagement... It was like having the old Wing back... just for a moment...”

Dr Hive cooed and rubbed her arm again.

“Have you and the boys considered... maybe it's time?”

“To put him in a home like some kind of invalid?!” Dr Fells snapped “Absolutely not! Not when our research is so close to completion!”

“He's getting worse,” Dr Hive pointed out softly “It may be too late by the time we're ready for that stage.”

“Don't worry about that.” Alphys interrupted, eyes still fixed on the computer “We have a back-up plan as far as that's concerned."

Dr Fells sniffed inelegantly before taking a big gulp from her tea. It seemed to calm her down, as she took a deep breath, held it, and sighed it out.

“Any luck?” she asked Alphys.

“No.” she confirmed “It's weird...”

She finally spun around in her chair to face the other two, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“Sans has confirmed that there are no security cameras that give the angle in those pictures.” she explained “The only printing orders I was able to fish out of the code from last night came from an unregistered mobile device, but the quality of the photo's was way above anything you could get from a camera phone. There are a few guys working here to would use camera's this high-grade – and they aren't exactly easy to come by – but none of their keycards were swiped in at the time.”

Dr Fells, understanding where Alphys was headed with this line of thinking, stood from her stool, removing the clunky cardigan and straightening up her hair and clothes.

“I'm confiscating every camera and phone on site.” she announced “Dr Alphys, I expect you to have processed them all by 6pm.”

“No problem.” she confirmed.

“Dr Hive, back to work.” Dr Fells ordered, her tone softer than normal as her gratitude to the other woman peaked through “We are professionals, let's act like it.”

 

* * *

 

“Another.” Mettaton ordered.

“Dude, we've already watched four!” Undyne laughed “Take a break! Stretch your wheel! I gotta take a leak, anyway.”

Putting her laptop on the battered low table, Undyne got up, stretching her gangly limbs from the hours sat on the sofa.

“We need snacks.” she decided “I'm gonna run to the shop down the road, pick up some crisps or something. You want... sorry, I forgot.”

Undyne laughed, flashing her awkward smile.

“I was gonna ask if you wanted anything.” she confessed “You don't need food, right? Man, I need some fresh air.”

Grabbing her wallet and security pass, Undyne sauntered out, leaving the computer behind. She didn't notice the lights on Mettatons front flashing erratically.

He did want something. He wanted movies. He wanted to see them all. He was almost vibrating in impatience – he couldn't wait for Undyne to get back. He pulled a lead out from his side, plugged it into the computer, and started to download.

 

* * *

 

“Nothing.” Alphys confirmed with an audible grumble “Every last one is clean.”

“The camera phones?” Dr Fells demanded, stood in front of the door with her arms folded over her chest.

“Also clean.”

“Security cameras?”

“The whole night was wiped.” Sans confirmed, sat at the work table with a scowl “The weird thing is, it was wiped this morning. The log shows it was wiped around 9:15 from an unregistered mobile device.”

“How does an unregistered device have access to our network?!” Dr Fells demanded to know, hands moving to her hips “What happened to our security protocols?!”

“They haven't been updated in a while.” Alphys admitted “We were too busy trying to get Mettatons body ready for the reveal.”

“Professional sabotage?” Dr Fells thought.

“It's not impossible.”

Dr Fells ground her sharp teeth, clearly thinking. Every single atom of her body looked pissed off.

“Alright!” she finally snapped “I'm going to call a meeting, give everyone back their phones and a piece of my mind while I'm at it! You and your idiot aren't leaving until our networks security is so tight that even a Whimsums fart can't get through!”

“I'm right here.” Sans grumbled, knowing that he was the aforementioned 'idiot.'

“Shut up, you'll get paid.” she confirmed “And find your intern something to do, she's be hanging around all day and it's pissing me off!”

With that, she left. The rest of the lab was staring at them through the glass walls, curious and knowing, rapidly pretending to be busy again the second Dr Fells turned around. Not having missed their eyes on her, Dr Fells cleared her throat.

“Staff meeting!” she yelled “Conference room! NOW!”

Every last scientist dropped what they were doing and bolted for the conference room. Sans snickered, peeling down the top of his janitors jumpsuit and tying it around his waist, loosening up his t-shirt. He sighed as he turned to Alphys.

“Shall we?”

 

* * *

 

Undyne balanced the boxes of takeaway haphazardly on her arms, the heat quickly permeating through the card and linen of her lab coat and burning her scales. She started dancing as she waited for the lift.

“Hot, hot, hot, hot!” she sang, running in as the doors opened.

Undyne thought she was pretty mature. Up until her internship had started, she thought she had been adulting pretty well. One of the first things she had learned was that she was still a stupid kid in a lot of ways. She had had a good snicker at Dr Fells this morning, thinking that nasty bitch finally had a taste of her own bile, but having thought about it as she watched Die Hard with Mettaton, she decided that Dr Alphys' reaction was far more mature, and more importantly, it was the right thing to do. Realising that made her feel bad about herself, but no-one can improve without first making mistakes!

As the lift doors opened, Undyne all but ran out, desperate to get to the office and put the hot boxes down. The periodic drone of the electric drill still permeated the air as Papyrus fit the metal blinds to all the glass walls and doors. It completely ruined the modern aesthetic of the lab, but under the circumstances it was probably for the best.

Finally getting to Alphys office, Undyne all but threw the boxes down.

“Jesus fuck!” she swore, flapping her arms around as if it would somehow get rid of the burning heat.

“Language.” her older sister scolded, making her jump.

“Dee!” Undyne exclaimed “What the heck?!”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Dee replied, taking a slice of pizza casually “It's nearly 11pm.”

“W-we've had a security breach!” she explained “And don't just help yourself!”

“Stop yelling and go get me a spool of extra fine solder.” Alphys ordered, not even taking her eyes off her screen, claws tapping away furiously “You ready to try again, Sans?”

“Almost, darlin'.” Sans confirmed from within the back room “Lemme finish these connections.”

Undyne did as she was asked, returning from the spares room within the minute. As Sans confirmed his readiness, Alphys hit the switch. All the lights and computers in the offices went out for a tense five seconds before stuttering back to life.

“Connections stable.” Sans confirmed from within the back room.

“System stable.” Alphys replied, sighing and rubbing her eyes “Alright, let's eat.”

Sans emerged from the back room, taking off his anti-static suit and putting it carefully in it's box. Alphys pulled her chair over to the work bench, manners out the window as they all tucked in like starving prisoners with their last meal.

“A security breach, huh?” Dee pried “Did you let the royal guard know?”

Alphys and Sans didn't reply, too busy stuffing their faces, so Undyne took the baton.

“W-well it wasn't that kind of breach.” he explained “No-body broke in, and nothing was taken. What would we report?”

“Hmm...” Dee replied, clearly thinking carefully “Good point. So is that the thing? The thinking robot?”

Dee pointed to Mettaton, who sat in the corner.

“Yeah, that's him.” Undyne confirmed.

“He talk?”

“He's offline right now.” the younger sister confirmed “His artificial intelligence is linked to the mainframe, so updates this big could fry him if he's online.”

“Huh...”

With a tired clatter, the office door opened, Papyrus slouching in with the drill still in his hand. Having run out of places to sit, Sans vacated his chair, sharing half a seat with Alphys so his brother could rest. Without even complaining about the greasiness of the food, he grabbed some spring rolls and a couple of onion rings.

“How's it going, bro?” Sans asked, finally speaking.

“Nearly finished.” he confirmed “I didn't realise how many rooms this office had.”

“Hope you guys get paid overtime.” Dee said.

They ate in silence for a while, all clearly exhausted, before getting back to work. Before they had even taken the last bite, half the blinds Papyrus had put up had come down again, so Dee took pity on him and helped him put them back. Alphys and Sans took turns putting on the anti-static suit and descending into the frigid back room, and typing their fingers down to nubs as they coded.

Undyne genuinely admired them both – their brilliance, their work ethic, the way it seemed to be so natural to them. She hoped one day she would be that cool. In the meantime, she kept her mouth shut and played errand boy.

 

* * *

 

Alphys was startled awake by a loud smashing sound. Sans, who was sleeping beside her on the sofa of the break-room, also woke with a jolt. Undyne and Papyrus, who were curled up on chairs either side, started to rouse, jumping at the sound of another loud smash.

“ALPHYS!” Dr Fells screamed.

Alphys leapt up, not caring what she looked or smelled like, and ran towards the sound. Dee was in the hallway, keeping the scientists back.

“Don't get any closer!” she ordered.

She stopped as ordered, but looked past her to see what the commotion was: Mettaton swayed haphazardly on his wheel, grabbing one of the fake plants and hurling it through a glass wall.

“Mettaton!” Alphys scolded, pushing past Dee to confront him “What are you doing?!”

“HOW DARE YOU?!” the robot answered “YOU HAD NO RIGHT!”

“P... what?” she replied, hardly a whisper.

Mettaton had never yelled before. He had never been angry before.

“You _updated_ me!” he yelled accusingly, throwing his arms around dramatically “You changed my security parameters!”

“I... I did, yes...”

“Did you think to ask me how I'd feel about that?!” he demanded “You went _in my brain_ and you _changed things_!”

He was genuinely upset. He was angry. He had a sense of self, and of that self being violated. This was... a major breakthrough! Alphys thought it would take years to get to this point! Alphys hid her excitement, putting on a sympathetic face.

“Mettaton-”

“All the talk yesterday about privacy!” he went on “What about _my_ privacy? Don't I have that right?! Anybody here can just go in my brain, or open my body and start messing around... I don't like it! I deserve my own privacy, too!”

“You're right, Mettaton, you're absolutely right!” Alphys agreed, taking his hand supportively “You deserve a say in your own body. We all get our privacy, it's only right you should get yours as well!”

Alphys looked around to the other scientists, who still stood around gawking at them, half in shock. She smiled at them in a way that ordered them to agree with her. Initially, they hesitated.

“Y-yeah!” Dr Hive finally spoke up “My son is at that stage as well, you know, it's a natural part of growing up.”

“I mean, yeah, sure.” Another reluctantly concurred “We can just... ask you next time we've got an update... whether or not you want it...”

“I want my own room.” Mettaton ordered “No glass walls, no cameras!”

“You don't even sleep, what would you do in your own room?” Dr Fells demanded.

“That's not important.” Alphys interrupted, patting Mettatons hand again “What's important is that Mettaton has his own space.”

A general murmur of agreement spread through the scientists. Seeing the flow of the tide, Dr Fells relented.

 

* * *

 

Mettaton looked around his new room. It was a storage cupboard, surprisingly large when cleared out of it's contents, and empty but for a few battered shelves. There were a few outlets, a box of spare parts, a bare lightbulb, and most importantly, a proper door. Alphys watched him for a moment from the door.

“You like it?” she asked “Is it what you wanted?”

Mettaton thought a moment.

“It's a blank canvas.” he confirmed “I'll make it homely. I'll make it my own space.”

Alphys beamed, unable to hide her excitement.

“I look forward to it!” she declared “Alright, I've got to go – work to get on with. Feel free to join us later.”

With that, she closed the door, leaving him alone. He waited a moment, just in case she came back. When she didn't, he turned to the box of spare parts, pulling out an old monitor. He plugged his aux cable into the side – the picture was lined, but it would do – and flicked through his catalogue. Today, he was going to marathon the Terminator movies.

 


	4. Beauty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've been on a roll, so have this one too!

Alphys felt like shit. Too many late nights, over-nights, bad sitting posture and a diet of take-away and instant noodles was starting to catch up with her. It felt like she had been asleep five minutes when the alarm so rudely woke her up, although in truth it had been closer to four hours. She dragged herself out of bed anyway and into the shower, the hot water washing the sweat and oil from her scales. She felt gross.

Stood in front of the bathroom mirror, she wiped away the steam and took a good look at her reflection. God, she was ugly. Fat, stubby limbs, uneven scales, dark-ringed eyes that shouted 'so fucking done' to every corner of the underground. She hated the way she looked so much... with a tired, aggravated sigh, she tore her eyes from the mirror and proceeded to brush her teeth.

None of her clothes were clean. When was the last time she even did the washing? She couldn't remember, but judging by the general disorder of her small flat, it had been a while since she had done any cleaning at all. She needed a day off. Just a week, perhaps, to get her life back in order. Clean the place, get some fresh food in, catch up on her sleep. Nothing fancy.

She pulled on the cleanest dress she could find (which still had a teriyaki stain on the front, but it wasn't very noticeable), and proceeded to the kitchen to try and scramble up some breakfast. Noticing that she had a couple of messages on her answer-phone, she hit the button as she headed for the fridge, looking disinterestedly at the stuff inside.

“Alfie, honey, it's your mother.” a familiar voice echoed around the room, causing her to groan “You haven't called me in a while, so I thought I'd call and make sure you're still alive. Your dad says 'hi.'”

Alphys opened an old container of noodles and gave it a sniff, instantly recoiling before tossing it in the bin beside the fridge.

“You know your father is retiring soon?” her mother's voice went on “And it got me to thinking-”

“'When are you going to give us grandkids?'” Alphys guessed.

“When are you going to give us grandkids?”

Alphys just growled quietly and shook her head, resuming her look in the fridge.

“'You're not getting any younger, honey.'” she knew.

“You're not getting any younger, honey.” the voice on the machine echoed “You've always been so stubborn, every since you were a baby, but when are you going to give up on this 'career woman' nonsense and find a nice man?”

“'There's no greater meh meh meh meh meh.” Alphys muttered, descending into nonsense as she sniffed a bottle of milk.

“There's no greater accomplishment in the world than having a family, honey, and looks aren't everything. There are nice men out there who can look past what you look like. You know Mr Roberts, next door? Well, his son is a dentist, and he-”

Alphys deleted the message, thoroughly uninterested in her mother trying to set her up _again_.

“Hey, Alpha.” Sans lazy voice greeted at the second message “Me, you, this Sunday, all day FMA marathon, all the junk food we can eat. Hit me up.”

“NOT all the junk food you can eat!” she heard Papyrus yell before Sans could hang up, making her laugh.

As she texted him to confirm she'd be there, the final message started with a beep.

“Uh... hey.” it started.

The voice was unfamiliar for a moment. It was deep, but definitely a woman's, and she _had_ heard it before.

“It's Dee.” the voice confirmed, solving the mystery “Y'know, Undyne's sister? I was calling 'cause... um... about your security problem... I was wondering if you... wanted to talk about it? Maybe? Okaythankscallyoulaterbye.”

With that, she hung up. Alphys didn't think the security issue was important enough to get the royal guard involved, but she wouldn't mind talking to Dee again. Downing the milk straight from the bottle and grabbing a pack of cold poptarts, Alphys headed out the door.

* * *

 

By the time Alphys got to work, Undyne was already there, flicking through the magazines in the visitors waiting area with Mettaton looking over her shoulder.

“Don't read that crap.” Alphys said by way of greeting, making Undyne jump “It'll rot your brain.”

“Sorry.” Undyne said, putting it back on the table “I forgot my book. I wasn't really reading it.”

“What's to read? 70% of those magazines are ads, and the others 30% are ads pretending they're articles. 'How to get perfect scales in 5 easy steps, you just need these eight ridiculously expensive products.'”

“'How to lose half a stone in 5 minutes without cutting off a limb!'” Undyne played along, following Alphys to the lift.

“'150 must-have beauty products to get that 'natural, no-make-up' look.'”

“With a special pull-out-and-keep segment for slime monsters!”

Okay, that made Alphys chuckle. Mettaton rolled up behind them as the lift door opened, the three wandering in.

“Seriously, though, none of that stuff works.” Alphys insisted “You're either beautiful or you aren't, expensive make-up's not going to change that.”

“I dunno,” Undyne argued “One of my friends is way good at it, like an artist. She looks like a totally different person!”

“And when she takes it all off, it's still her beneath.” Alphys pointed out “You can never get away from yourself, Undyne.”

The lift reached their floor, Dr Fells striding busily past them as they bumbled out.

“And then there's that one.” Dr Alphys grumbled, watching her leave before walking in the opposite direction.

* * *

 

“I've been thinking.” Mettaton announced as he looked over the blue-prints of his planned upgrade “I want a say in what my new body looks like.”

“Draw up a plan.” Alphys instructed, crunching some numbers beside him “It's got to be technologically viable, don't forget.”

“I won't forget. I'll get the blue-prints to you tonight. Can I... help you build it, too? I've got very definite ideas of what I want.”

“You'll have to liaise with the others.” she explained “Dr Head is making your limbs, for example. If they're okay with it, then sure. You'll need your hands upgraded before you can be really helpful, though.”

“When will my new hands he ready?”

“Soon. Just waiting on a couple of parts.”

There was a sharp knock on the door, an unhappy looking Dr Fells standing on the other side.

“Oh god, what now?” Alphys grumbled, gesturing for her to come in.

“It's that time of year again.” the other scientist complained, throwing a fancy-looking invitation onto the work bench.

“'Beg for funding' time?” Alphys asked, picking the invitation up between her claws like it was contaminated.

“You know it.” Dr Fells confirmed “Wing... Dr Gaster isn't really in any condition for those kinds of get-together right now, so you're up to bat.”

“What?!” Alphys startled, dropping the invitation “You can't be serious!”

“I don't like it either!” she confirmed “But I've got no choice. I always got the attention by wearing a tight dress, and Dr Gaster used it to talk up our projects. Without him around, I need someone else to talk shop.”

“You're perfectly capable of talking shop.” Alphys knew.

“The rich idiots will be too busy staring at my tits to hear a word coming out of my mouth.” Dr Fell knew “Take the rest of the day off and buy something that doesn't make you look like a sack of potatoes. Preferably without soy sauce down the front.”

“It's teriyaki.”

Dr Fells just raised an eyebrow, slightly disgusted, and left.

* * *

 

There was not a single piece of clothing in the underground that didn't make Alphys look like a sack of potatoes. She knew this already, but she tried regardless. Smart trouser-suits, nice dresses, ugly dresses, ridiculous trouser suits... nothing looked good on her. How formal should she be? What was reasonable to spend? She knew she'd never look as good as Dr Fells, no matter what she wore, so she didn't exactly feel any need to compete. That didn't mean she wanted to look like a pile of crap.

Not that she had much choice.

Dejectedly leaving another shop empty-handed, Alphys remembered why she hated clothes shopping so much. Everything looked so good on the mannequins, but the mannequins looked nothing like her. Alphys was so busy feeling sorry for herself that she didn't notice excited footsteps thundering towards her, stopping shyly as they got close, and finally padding towards her casually.

“Hey, Doc!”

Alphys jumped out of her skin, clutching the strap of her handbag like she was about to be mugged, and spun towards the voice.

“Oh, Dee...” she realised, finally exhaling “It's you.”

“Didn't scare ya, did I?” Dee asked, grinning mischievously at her “You seem a little spooked.”

“A little, yeah. What are you doing in this part of the city?”

“Just finished work.” the guardsman confessed, gesturing to the magical spear slung nonchalantly over her shoulder “You?”

“I've got a... event... in the next few days.” Alphys told her “Just trying to find a dress that doesn't make me look like a complete sack of crap.”

“Well, that shouldn't be too hard.” Dee thought “You got some great curves. U-uh, I mean-!”

Dee coughed, looking away as if that was all it took to cover up what she had just said.

“What I mean is... I-I saw something in a window a few streets down that would look good on you...”

Dee glanced back periodically as she spoke, rightly embarrassed. The sisters weren't so different afterall, Alphys thought. She laughed through her nose, breaking the tension.

“I've had no luck on my own, so why not.” she said “Why don't you show me?”

Dee beamed, gesturing down the road, and started the typical small-talk as they wandered down together.

* * *

 

“Well, miracles do happen.” was the only comment Dr Fells had when Alphys showed up at the decorated foyer of the fancy hotel in her new dress.

The entire third floor of the place had been reserved for the fundraiser – no cramped basement room for the richest and most powerful monsters in the entire underground. Even on it's shabbiest day, this hotel was so fancy that Alphys felt like she was stealing just by standing in it. Her new dress – just a simple black thing with polkadots on – while far more than she would usually spend on any clothing, was probably about the cost of a single gilded napkin that sat, folded like a swan, on any of the elegantly adorned tables.

“Put on your game face.” Dr Fells ordered as they entered the conference room, picking a flute of champagne from a passing waiter without to much as looking at it “We're here to make money, not friends. And don't get pally with the other scientists either - they're our competition for funding.”

Alphys wasn't surprised that Dr Fells blended into the crowd as if she were born to it, mingling with the upper echelons of monster society like they were old friends. Needless to say, she looked gorgeous tonight, even for her, with a black satin dress and thread of pearls hanging around her neck, hair tied into an elegant updo with nary a strand out of place.

Alphys had considered wearing make-up – god knew she had enough lying around from her earlier years of desperately trying to polish the turd that was her face – but since she could honestly say that she had no idea of what she was doing, she didn't bother. Taking a brief look around, she could see other reptile-type monsters with fancy headdresses or spike jewellery. She liked the look, but it was a little fancy for her. Maybe for her wedding.

Ha, yeah right, like she was ever getting married.

A passing waiter offered Alphys a flute of champagne, which she took more out of politeness than wanting, and shuffled uncomfortably after Dr Fells. True to expectation, Fells was already drawing a crowd, mostly of older men desperate to ply her with drinks.

“You know, we never did have that dinner you promised me last year!” one reminded her, leaning in close with what looked to be a scotch.

“Hey now, she owes me a drink first!” another interrupted flirtatiously.

“Now now, boys, don't argue,” Dr Fells responded in a voice more babyish and flirtatious than her regular manner “I've just been so busy with work, I hardly even have time to keep up with my undernet profile some days.”

So, that's how she did it. Alphys felt a begrudging respect for her as Dr Fells courted the attention of the old perverts for the sake of their ongoing funding, feeling her scales crawl every time they looked down the top of her dress.

“So tell me, how is the project coming along?” an old slime monster with what looked like a moustache asked “I trust that the investment I made last year was well spent?”

“Uh, well...”

Dr Fells played dumb, tilting her head to the side like it was filled with cotton fluff and pulling a cute face.

“As far as that goes, I'll pass you to Dr Fells.” she said, gesturing towards Alphys “She's our senior technician, second only to Dr Gaster. Poor fella's not feeling well, otherwise he would've been here tonight too.”

Alphys was confused for a moment, but quickly remembered the long-con Fells and Gaster concocted to pretend that Fells was Alphys. It made perfect sense to switch names in this situation.

“Y-yes.” Alphys responded as Dr Fells gestured to her “Good evening, I'm Dr Fells.”

The small gathering turned to face her, and in that few seconds Alphys saw all the interest and attention drain from their eyes. To be dismissed by an entire crowd before she could even open her mouth was something Alphys had experience before, but it never stopped being painful.

“We're actually at a very important stage of our project.” Dr Alphys relayed, trying to sound as cordial and professional as possible “The software has improved to the point where it's now exhibiting self-express-”

“Wow, that's really interesting.” a skeleton in a fancy suit cut her off, clearly not interested at all as he turned his attention straight back to Dr Fells “So Alphys, tell me, what do you do at the lab?”

The crowds eyes turned back to Dr Fells, once again lighting up with rapture.

* * *

 

Dr Alphys' evening could be summed up completely in that one conversation. Dr Fells, used to working a crowd, pulled Alphys from gathering to gathering within the conference room, using her wiles and tight dress to get the attention of anyone she wanted. Once the attention was hers, she tried to pass the baton to Alphys to discuss the nitty-gritty of what they were actually doing and preserve her ditzy-girl facade, but Alphys never got more than a few sentences in before she was interrupted, dismissed, or just ignored completely. Reading the tide, Dr Fells tried a few groups made up mostly or entirely of women, and while they had the manners to pretend to listen a little longer, in the end the result was the same.

A real low point for Alphys was when one asshole decided to make a phone call _as she was talking to him._ Alphys felt lower than dirt. It was like high-school again, being completely dismissed and derided by a bunch of jerks that she didn't even care about in the first place. She wasn't looking to make friends or meet anyone, but the way they seemed to deny that she was even there... she had spent so long in the professional world, surrounded by people she could at least talk shop with if nothing else, that she had forgotten exactly how devastating this kind of 'othering' felt. She didn't miss it. She had hated school, and she hated this.

“What the fuck are these wankers problems?!” Dr Fells all but screamed in the empty bathroom as the two of them 'powdered their noses' “Does the presence of a dick help you hear better?! Bastards!”

Dr Fells angrily reapplied her lipstick as Alphys washed her hands, her deep-seeded self loathing raw and risen.

“You should have seen them last year.” Fells scoffed “They couldn't get enough – Wing was practically giving a lecture to the whole party by the end! 'That's so interesting, Dr Gaster!' 'Sounds like a real breakthrough, Dr Gaster!' Fuckers...”

“Maybe we should just leave.” Alphys suggested “We're not getting anywhere with this.”

“You are not leaving me alone with these people.” Dr Fells ordered “Three of these old pervs have already given me their room numbers tonight!”

Alphys wasn't 100% sure, but she could guess what that meant. There were no words to express just how badly she wanted to leave.

“Alright.” Fells finished, adjusting the underwire of her bra “I'm going to get us a couple of glasses of Dutch courage, straight, and you're going to down it whether you like it or not. Meet me at the bar in five.”

Not leaving room for argument, Fells walked out. An almighty sigh racked through Alphys, leaving her somehow even emptier. She washed her face, glad that she didn't have to worry about running mascara, and gave herself a second to recompose.

She could do this. She was an adult, and so were these people. This was for her work. She wasn't going to let them get to her. As she left the bathroom, Alphys grabbed a paper towel to dry her face, but missed dropping it in the bin by almost an inch. Grumbling to herself about how typical that was, she bent down to pick it up.

“Wait, _that_ was Dr Fells?” a voice from the men's room inquired indignantly “You're kidding me!”

“'Fraid not, man.” another replied with a scoff “Heard it straight from the horses mouth.”

“Yeah, she looks like a horse.” the first snickered.

“You know, I heard Dr Fells was supposed to be, like, a complete babe or something. Gotta say, I am sorely disappointed.”

“Whoever said she was a babe needs their eyes examined.”

“Not by her, she'd make 'em go blind, being that close up.”

“I heard she never leaves the lab to come to these things. I can see why!”

The two burst into derisive laughter, exiting the bathroom. By the time they reached the door, Dr Alphys was gone.

* * *

 

The lab was dark and warm, lit only by the emergency lighting, the familiar smells and buzzing of various computers surrounding her. It felt like a cocoon, safe and familiar, more home to Alphys than even her own bedroom. She was happy no-one was around – she didn't want to be around people. She wanted her computer, her messy work desk, her stacked boxes of parts. Things that couldn't see or speak. Things that couldn't judge.

She shuffled, in no particular rush, towards her office, when the hallway was illuminated by the opening of a door.

“Dr Alphys?” Mettaton called into the dark “You look nice. Wasn't your party tonight? I like your dress.”

Wheeling himself out of his bedroom, Mettaton closed the door behind him. He was used to his creator not turning around to look at him as he spoke, so it didn't seem odd to him that she froze in the hallway, head bowed as if the floor tiles held the secret of life. By the time he had reached her, however, his sensors had picked up her cold temperature and the low level of hormones in her brain.

“Dr Alphys?” he said again “What's wrong?”

Her shoulders gave an involuntary shudder, but Alphys finally, slowly, turned to Mettaton. She knew her face was a miserable wreck, her eyes red and swollen, and she didn't even try to hide it.

“Dr Alphys...”

“How could I have forgotten what this feels like?” she breathed miserably, hardly able to even hear herself “How could I have forgotten... the entire reason I became this way in the first place?”

Head too heavy with dark clouds to hold up on her own, Alphys rested it on Mettaton's chassis, the gentle 'donk' of her scales hitting his metal resounding in the silent lab.

“How dare I dream that things had changed. That I was somehow... equal? How dare I be cushioned by the idea of... being adult... being professional... it doesn't mean anything...”

Mettaton put his hands sympathetically on her shoulders. They were warm, buzzing slightly from the electricity pulsing through them.

“People are so cruel.” she sobbed “Give me my gentle machines, please...”

“Dr Alphys... I don't know what happened, but...”

With one hand still on her back, Mettaton led Alphys to the break room. Not having any lap to speak of, he gathered all the cushions to the floor, deposited Dr Alphys on top of them, and retracted his wheel so he was sat on the ground, pulling her back against him and into a tight hug. She wandered briefly where he had learned this kind of behaviour, but let the thought go as she allowed herself to be comforted. A gentle voice started to sing from within Mettaton as he slowly stroked her head.

“That's a nice song.” she noted, the lullaby soothing her aching soul “What station is it on?”

“It's not the radio.” he admitted, his volume turned down “It's me. I wrote it.”

“It's nice.”

Mettaton paused for a moment, the lights on his front flashing gently, before he resumed singing, stroking Alphys' head gently as the two of them sat alone in the dark.

 


	5. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been sat on my computer, less than a paragraph from being finished, ever since I posted the last one... Much like Alphys, I need to get my shit together.

“Go back and count them again.”

“I've counted them five times already.”

“You've counted them wrong five times already. Go back and count them _again_.”

Undyne and Dr Fells glared at each other, both stubborn and angry, but considering her position as an intern, it was Undyne that backed down, grabbing the itinerary from the desk and storming off. Dr Fells grumbled to herself and went back to the document she was reading.

Things had been going missing from the lab for a while now – little things at first, like spools of wire, tiny LED bulbs and batteries – but the thief was getting bolder, taking any monitors that weren't nailed down, raiding the spare parts room and taking nearly half of their tools. They were also targeting personal electronics brought into the building, tearing apart smart phones, tablets and laptops, stealing whatever component they wanted, and tossing the rest in a bin, potted plant, or even toilet bowl.

It wasn't just their office, either – the other floors of the building were being affected too, with the office one floor down having to replace their entire computer system after it was completely trashed by the intruder. Whoever was doing it, there didn't seem to be a financial motive, as the complete phone or laptop was worth more than any random part within it, but that only deepened the mystery. Dr Fells could only think that the person was building something, which didn't narrow down the suspect list, as the entire building was full of scientists, engineers and designers. What could they be building that required this many parts? And what were all the monitors for?

Sans and Papyrus were getting a lot of grief from the other floors for 'not doing their job', but the thief had covered their bases – they had some kind of jamming device that knocked out the feed of any camera they got near, so while the boys could track their movements, they had no clues at all as to who it was. In any other situation, Dr Fells would be on their back as well, but the last thing they needed was more stress.

Dr Fells took off her reading glasses, rubbing her eyes. She was so tired. Wing was getting worse – just last night he had woken both his sons up in a mad flurry, swearing it was giftmas morning and they were both still little kids. He was starting to need someone with him nearly 24 hours a day, and the three of them had had to sit down and seriously discuss that maybe... maybe it was time to put him in a home, where he could get the care he needed. None of them wanted to, but they didn't know how to take care of him, what was best for him.

Dr Fells stole a glance at the photo on her desk – her and Wing at their engagement party, smiling widely as they cut into a cake, champagne in hand. She had been so happy that day, but the memory would always be tinged with tragedy, as only two days later he was diagnosed with early onset alzheimers. Instead of planning their wedding, getting lost in the frivolities of invitations, flowers and seating arrangements, they spent the next few months planning what they were going to do, getting overwhelmed by medications, therapies and... _final_ arrangements.

Wing had toyed with artificial intelligence for years, but had never been able to make it work beyond what he was able to program. He openly fantasized about living on as a computer, his mind whole and incorruptible forever, and Dr Fells would have given anything to make that happen. Maybe it was listening to his rambling that had inspired Alphys, who had been friends with Sans since childhood, to make her doctoral project a self-learning algorithm. Compared to the software it took to make Mettaton, it was childishly simplistic, but it was better than anything Wing had been able to come up with. She didn't need to be asked twice to come and work for them, to work on a machine that was able to save Wing. Not just his brain, his intellect – any book could record that – but his kindness, his sense of humour, his inspiration, everything that made him who he was, everything that made people love him so much.

Fast forward seven years, and their research had progressed in leaps and bounds. So too, unfortunately, had Wings condition. Most days, Dr Fells couldn't even recognise the man she loved, but some days, every month or so, he would remember her, their relationship, their life together. She lived for those days.

She was starting to accept that Wing may not make it to see the end of the project. She would see it through, regardless, because she owed him that much. He wanted to help all the monsters of the underground, not just himself, and she wanted to make that happen for him.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a knock on the door, Alphys popping he head in.

“I'm gone.” she announced.

“Alright, see you Monday.” Dr Fells bid “Check on your intern on the way out, make sure she can actually count past ten.”

* * *

 

“Hi, order for Alphys?”

“Oh, good evening, doc.” the maitre d' greeted upon seeing Alphys “It's been a while since we've seen you. Give me a second and I'll grab your order.”

“Thanks.”

Alphys loitered awkwardly by the plinth as the maitre d' went back into the restaurant and disappeared into the kitchen. This was a fancy-ish place, so she only got food from here when she wanted to treat herself. Deciding that she deserved a long weekend, Alphys had taken the half day on Friday, having every intention of cleaning up her flat, getting in some food shopping and having a proper rest.

After her little meltdown last week, a feeling of calm had washed over her. Apparently she had been bottling those feelings up for a long time, and finally letting them out had been cathartic in many ways. She was able to carry on, the same as ever, but this time was a little easier: she had never had a breakdown in front of anyone before, so she had never been comforted. The last person she expected to be able to comfort her was Mettaton – his emotional understanding shouldn't have been anywhere near that stage yet – so it was a pleasant surprise, when all the hurt feelings were cried out.

The maitre d' returned, handing Alphys a bag that was probably too large for one person, and she headed home. There was a light breeze blowing through Hotland from Waterfall, making the walk a little more refreshing than usual. Alphys lived on the edge of the city, where rent was cheaper, but it was still way too crowded for her liking. There weren't too many people around in the middle of the afternoon, but Alphys still had to dodge a few as she walked along the street.

Stopped at a busy intersection, Alphys waited for the lights to change, checking her emails briefly as the bicycles whizzed past. Looking back up, she spotted a familiar tall fish-type monster in the crowd – it was Dee, clearly on a day off from work, laden with shopping bags and boxes. Judging by the labels on the bag (which Alphys knew belonged to expensive, girly shops), they didn't belong to her.

Sure enough, the fish-type monster next to her put her fin on Dee's arm to get her attention, saying something that made her laugh. As expected of someone who would wear such clothes, the girl was gorgeous – small, soft scales that changed colour in the light, full lips and a trendy fin style. Something stung deep in Alphys, but at the same time she wasn't even surprised. Laughing together, the two of them looked close. Was that her... girlfriend? Of course Dee would have a gorgeous girlfriend like that. Just look at those muscles!

The light finally changed, but Alphys found herself rooted to the spot, unable to move as the crowd surged into the road. As Dee and the other girl walked towards her, she couldn't even look at them, staring at a fixed spot on the ground.

“I just know Shyren is going to love it!” the girl said “I'm so glad they had it in her size!”

“Your sister would like anything you bought her.” Dee confirmed.

They passed right by her, not even noticing her existence, and carried on down the road. Somehow, this felt perfectly natural, like it always should've been that way. The light changed again, leaving Alphys no choice but to wait for her next chance, the food in the bag burning her scales.

* * *

 

Alphys emptied an embarrassing amount of trash from her flat that afternoon, a lot of it spoiled food, and ran at least 4 loads of washing. Never one to iron her clothes, the second they were dry they went straight into the closet. Flat cleared and dusted, doors of her Juliet balcony open to let in some fresh air and get rid of the smell, the place finally felt like a place to live, instead of a pit she sometimes went to to sleep in. It did her psyche good, every now and then, to have a clear-out. It would be messy again soon enough, but for now it felt like a fresh start.

The doorbell rang as she was changing her bedsheets, startling her so much that she momentarily got lost within them, struggling to pull them back over he head. They were still caught on the spines of her tail, dragging behind her as she answered the door. Sans stood on the other side with his usual smile and two bags full of fresh groceries.

“Hey, boo.” he greeted “Bought you some food.”

“Oh, cool.” she replied, stepping aside to let him in “How did you know I needed?”

“Well, let's see,” Sans chuckled, putting the bags on the kitchen counter “You left work early, you've cleaned your whole flat, and by the looks of it you got take-away from Slime Ranchers... You want to talk about what's upsetting you?”

“Heh...” Alphys chuckled self-consciously “You know me too well. And no, no I don't. You want to talk about what's bothering you?”

Sans flinched, freezing a moment before he recommenced putting the cold things in the fridge.

“You're here without your brother,” she pointed out “You're hanging out with me on a Friday night instead of going to Grillby's, and judging by the food you bought and the spare underwear balled in your coat pocket, you're planning on spending most of the weekend here.”

“Heh,” he echoed, looking at her sadly “I didn't say you were wrong, darlin', it's just... nothing _new_.”

Knowing full well exactly what was wrong, Alphys could only walk over and hug him from behind, as it was the only way he'd let himself be comforted physically.

“So, how about this.” he went on, lightening his tone in his awkwardness “I'll help you finish making the bed, you warm me up some of that Slime Ranchers, and we'll both get blind stinking drunk and watch bad movies.”

“I'll get the blanket.” Alphys agreed.

* * *

 

For reasons lost to time, whenever the two of them got together to watch movies, they ignored whatever seats were available and huddled together on the floor, with the food and drink laden coffee table in front of them and using the sofa as a backrest. When it got cold, they wrapped themselves up in an old fleece blanket and sat so close that they were breathing the same air until they eventually fell asleep.

“You think the alien has a stomach?” Sans wandered, slurring ever so slightly from the amount he had drunk “A lot of bugs don't, y'know, and I never see it eat any of it's victims.”

“You got a point.” Alphys agreed “Like, I bet the workers don't, but maybe the queen does?”

“Gotta make those eggs somehow.”

They both flinched as said Alien cornered the space captain in the tunnel, snickering at themselves and taking another drink from the bottles they clutched close to their chests.

“Man, Prometheus can fuck off.” Sans went on “S'far as I'm concerned, there's only 4 Alien movies.”

“I think you mean two.” Alphys corrected.

“I mean four – you mean two. Purist.” he laughed “My dad... my dad loves that fourth movie. Loves it... couldn't take that away from him...”

Sans wrapped his arms around his knees, curling up further. Knowing that he was now drunk enough to open up, the similarly tipsy Alphys stayed quiet and leaned comfortingly into him.

“Today... today was a good day.” he admitted “It was only like a few years ago. He thought I had just finished my masters, that Pap's was in high school... He was talking to me about getting my doctorate, how time was precious and I shouldn't waste it...”

Alphys put her beer down on the floor, wrapping her arms around Sans as he started to shake.

“I actually got angry with him.” he went on “I told him there was no point, no point in struggling and working so hard when it was all going to be taken away in an instant by some... disease! All the amazing stuff my dad's done, his inventions, his accomplishments... he doesn't remember any of them! What was the point in all his work?”

“Sans-”

“Of course he didn't know what I was talking about, but do you know what he said? Without even blinking, he said it was about 'living', that while you were alive you had a duty to live, to experiment and discover, and it didn't matter what happened at the end because you _lived_... you know the type of shit my dad always said.”

“Yeah, I remember well.” Alphys confirmed.

“If my dad knew I dropped out... that I was working as a janitor and security guard in the same building where he dreamed of us working together as scientists... he'd be so disappointed with me!”

Heavy tears fell from Sans eyes, but he was too tired, right down to his soul, to hide them or wipe them away.

“He wouldn't be disappointed.” Alphys knew for certain “He'd be proud of you for taking care of him and Papyrus. He's be proud of how responsible you are. He'd be proud of _you_ , Sans.”

Sans sniffed, turning to her with a weak smile.

“Thanks, Alpha.” he said “You always know exactly what to say.”

“I ought to, after all this time.”

After a hollow laugh from the skeleton, they fell into a familiar silence, still staring at each other. After a moment, they both leaned in for the kiss, starting light, but becoming hungrier and more desperate as the seconds passed. After a few minutes they broke apart, both blushing deeply and a little out of breath.

“We can't keep doing this.” Alphys said.

“I know.” Sans agreed quietly.

“It'll only end in tears.”

“Usually does.”

“We're both pretty drunk.”

“That we are.”

Regardless, they kissed again, Sans clumsily finding the remote to turn the television off. They wouldn't be watching any more movies tonight.

 


	6. Mortality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay okay, silence all this time then two uploads in one day? I'll be honest, I want this story finished now. Not that I don't like it anymore - I still certainly do! - but I don't like the feeling of having it sat on my computer, not doing anything with it for god-knows-how-long, so I'm aiming to get this whole thing finished while I'm off work this week. Wish me luck!

The phone would not stop ringing. That was annoying at the best of times, but when it was 4am on a Sunday, and you were already hurting from three nights in a row of drinking too much, it was especially unpleasant. The ringing finally stopped, only to start again a few seconds later. Alphys groaned as she realised it wasn't going to stop, flicking on the bedside lamp, causing Sans (who could usually sleep through anything), the flinch and splutter awake beside her.

“I refuse to believe it's time to get up.” he grumbled, pulling the covers over his head.

Alphys groped around in the dim for her glasses, finally putting them on before leaving the nice warm bed to find wherever the hell she left her phone.

“Nice ass.” Sans snickered.

“Shut up, Bone-head.” Alphys hate-flirted back.

Her phone continued to scream, lighting up like the Blackpool illuminations in the dark of the kitchen, making it easy enough to find. She reached it just as it stopped again, the screen informing her that Dr Fells has called her a total of 14 times in quick succession. Her heart leapt into her throat, her stomach dropping down – this never meant anything good. Almost immediately, it started to ring again, and she wasted no time in answering it.

* * *

 

The hospital was as rank and uninviting as ever. It was clean, of course, but sterile, lifeless, and inhospitable. Alphys had no good associations with this place, and neither did any of the monsters that gathered here. Dr Fells lent against the wall of the waiting room, spinning an unlit cigarette in her fingers: she had quit years ago, but during times like this she always bought a pack. Whether or not she would smoke it would depend on what the doctor had to say.

Both she and Papyrus were dressed like they had thrown on whatever was closest at hand on their way to the emergency room in the dead of night, and while usually the sight of Papyrus wearing his much shorter brothers trousers would have been something to laugh at, there was no merriment to be found in his hollow eyes and empty expression, staring at the wall as he mindlessly turned the rubix cube over and over in his hands. He didn't even look around as Sans and Alphys approached.

“What happened?” Alphys asked Dr Fells when they were close enough “Is he okay?”

“I don't know.” she replied quietly, her distress obvious as she continued to spin the cigarette “I found him trying to cook dinner at 2am, and then he just... collapsed... I … I think this might be it...”

She put the cigarette in her mouth, chewing on the end unblinkingly. Alphys stroked the older monsters arm, trying to soothe them both, as Sans took the seat beside his brother.

“Hey, bro.” he greeted gently “How you doin'?”

“Oh, you know...” he replied, completely devoid of emotion “I'm fine. You know how it is.”

“Yeah.” Sans replied quietly, leaning against him “Yeah, I do.”

They didn't know how long they stood around waiting, the most useful thing any of them able to do being purchasing bitter and stale-tasting coffee from the machine in the hallway. Eventually, a nurse came and led them to the family room, where the doctor was already waiting. The four knew from experience that that never meant anything good. The doctor soon confirmed as much.

“I'm afraid it's the time we've all been expecting.” he informed them sombrely “I'm sorry. He's not quite fallen down yet, but... well, he isn't far off either. I know that you've all made arrangements, so... maybe you should take this time to say goodbye.”

There was silence in the room. Knowing, accepting, but depressing all the same. No-one seemed to be able to find any words.

“Is there anything we can do?” Dr Fells finally asked “Anything that will... improve... his condition?”

“No.” the doctor said plainly “Not anymore.”

“I see.”

She snapped the cigarette between her fingers, throwing it in the trash. Immediately, her entire aura changed – her posture, her facial expression, the very air around her turning to ice – as she turned tail and headed out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Alphys asked.

“Work.” she replied coldly “And so are you.”

* * *

 

Mettaton was confused. Usually, at 8am on a Sunday, he would have been alone in the lab. Sans might have been bustling around cleaning, his brother doing the rounds. A couple of the lab staff would come in and out during the day, finishing up experiments, compiling reports, generally hiding from the responsibilities of the outside world, but not until much later in the day. The lab was already a hive of activity, all essential and quite a few support staff already having been here for hours.

Undyne yawned loudly, stretching her slim shoulders as she waited for the coffee maker to finish it's work, a dozen empty mugs sat patiently on the counter top beside her. Of course, Mettaton had picked up in passing what was happening, but he still didn't really understand.

“Undyne, what is 'falling down'?” he asked bluntly.

The intern nearly choked, having been mid-yawn when he asked. She spluttered, coughing out her shock to recompose herself.

“That's, I mean... yikes, Metts, that's a little heavy for this time in the morning.”

“Isn't that why everyone's here?” he clarified “Because Dr Gaster has 'fallen down'? Why doesn't he just get back up?”

Undyne immediately looked uncomfortable.

“That isn't... what that means.”

The coffee maker beeped loudly to let them know it was ready, so Undyne started to pour as she spoke.

“Everything that's alive, at one point or another... it stops being alive. That's just the way things are, it's natural. When we 'fall down', it means that we won't be alive much longer.”

“And then what?”

“Then?”

Undyne paused. Mettaton could see exactly how uncomfortable she was, but he couldn't understand why. If falling down was 'natural', as she claimed, then why was everyone getting so upset about Dr Gaster?

“Then we turn to dust.” she replied quietly “And that dust gets spread on our favourite things.”

“And then what?” Mettaton repeated.

“Then?” Undyne turned to him, looking almost angry, but she stopped herself, taking a moment to realise who she was talking to “Then nothing. We're dead – there is nothing else.”

“Nothing? How can there be nothing?”

His question seemed to pain her, as she desperately tried to find an answer for him.

“Mettaton...” she said slowly “The entire reason that life is so precious is because it's finite: once we're dead, that's it, there is nothing else. You've got live while you're alive, you know?”

“No, I don't know.” he freely admitted.

Undyne sighed haggardly, still struggling.

“This is... difficult to explain.” she admitted “Think about it this way...”

She paused again. Her obvious discomfort only confused him more. Finally, she looked him straight in the camera.

“You are never going to see Dr Gaster again.” she said bluntly “He's gone, and nothing will ever bring him back.”

“I never much cared for him.” Mettaton confessed.

Undyne's jaw dropped, and she looked like she had just been slapped in the face. She looked all around frantically, and upon making sure no-one was around, quickly pulled the door closed.

“You can't say that about someone that's fallen down!” she hissed at him.

“Why?”

“Because.... because it's bad! You just don't! And besides, all these people in the lab are here today because they care about Dr Gaster – he's the whole reason you were even created, so you can't go saying bad thing about him!”

Mettaton computed a moment. He still didn't care about Dr Gaster. Undyne seemed to pick up on that, chewing on her lip a moment.

“Okay,” she said thoughtfully “Think about this: what if it was Alphys?”

“Alphys?”

“What if you never got to see Alphys again?” she asked him pointedly “What if you never got to see her smile, to spend time with her, to hear her laugh ever again? What if you had to live the rest of your life knowing that you'd never again see the way her eyes light up when you do something that makes her proud of you?”

“Stop.”

“No matter how badly you want to see her, how badly you want to talk to her, you can't, because she's gone, and she won't ever come back.”

“Stop.”

“And no matter how much you miss her, how many other people you have, you'll always have an Alphys-shaped hole in your life, one that will never be filled because she isn't there, and no matter what you do, she never will be.”

“I SAID STOP!”

Mettaton pushed Undyne back so hard that the tempered glass wall behind her actually cracked as she slammed into it, shocking them both. She looked at him, her eyes wide with fear, before taking a moment to compose herself. His hands were still on her shoulders, and she placed one of her own delicately on top.

“That's what it means to be dead, Metts.” she finished ruefully “It only hurts for those left behind... that's why no-one likes to talk about it. What you're feeling now – that sadness, that anger – it's what everyone's feeling right now, only it's about Dr Gaster. You understand? Even if you didn't like him much, you can't say anything bad about him now. Okay?”

Mettaton computed. He didn't like hearing those things about Alphys, not even a tiny bit. He drummed his fingers on Undyne's shoulders.

“Will Alphys... be feeling this way too?” he asked.

“Of course she will.” Undyne confirmed “She's known Dr Gaster since she was a child – he's like family to her.”

“I see.”

He drummed his fingers a moment more before finally releasing Undyne, wheeling back to the cooling coffee.

“I'll take half of these.” he offered, grabbing a tray from the side.

* * *

 

It was late – so late that it was technically Monday morning. A few scientists were still at their desks, kept awake by coffee and determination alone. Undyne had fallen asleep in the break room hours ago, her slumbering form only visible thanks to the dim blue bulb on the microwave clock. Alphys sat at her computer, hardly having eaten or spoken to anyone all day, typing away frantically.

Mettaton couldn't stop thinking about the things that Undyne had said as he watched Alphys' unmoving back. He couldn't remember a time when she wasn't around – in the infancy of his programming, she had been the one to interact with him. As his consciousness had grown, she had been his teacher, his friend, his... his whole world. Of course, there were times she wasn't with him physically – she would go home to sleep, spend a day or two away from the lab, but she always came back.

She always came back.

Would there really be a day when she just... wouldn't?

He rolled up behind her quietly, reaching a hand out to touch her bright scales. He stopped, remembering the way the glass has cracked earlier in the day. Alphys suddenly seemed so very fragile.

“Alp... darling?” he called quietly.

“What is it, Mettaton?” she asked, not looking at him.

He computed a moment, trying to discern the right words.

“Am I alive?” he asked.

Alphys stopped tying. The look of shock that graced her face when she turned around wasn't entirely unpleasant, more like she was merely surprised than horrified.

“You're asking me... if you're alive?” she repeated, her hand momentarily covering her mouth “That's... a major breakthrough... We shouldn't be at this point yet... Why do you ask?”

“Everything that's alive dies.” he pointed out “Am I alive? Will I die?”

Alphys started chewing on her finger. She clearly wasn't as uncomfortable as Undyne had been when they were talking about the subject earlier: on the contrary, her hormone levels were going wild, where a moment ago they had been very sedate – she was excited. With a clearing of her throat, she composed herself.

“Technically... no, you aren't 'alive', in the strictest sense of the word. You're made of metal and wires, not magic like us Monsters, or water like Humans. You won't age, since you don't have cells that degrade. Even if your metal body gets damaged, you can upload your mind into another unit, so you'll never technically die, but...”

She examined him closely, her eyes dilated.

“There's a school of thought the suggests any program that can question it's own life, let alone it's mortality, has achieved true sentience, and therefore _is_ alive...”

Her excitement flared again.

“D-do you... consider yourself... alive?”

She had bit her finger so hard that it was starting to bleed, but still she gnawed on it. She was a little startled when Mettaton pulled it gently out of her mouth, wiping the blood away.

“I think I am.” he confirmed “I feel, I want... I know this to be true, because I remember when I didn't. It's not simply a case of learning: there are things that have no real value to me, and yet I still want them. I still desire... I think I'm alive. No, I _am_ alive. Does that mean I'll die?”

Mettaton's sensors could pick up that Alphys' brain was going wild, firing in all zones, despite the blank look on her face.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

Alphys startled a little at the question, glancing at the hand that still held hers.

“N-no...” she said finally “You won't die. Not unless your core program is deleted. Without proper maintenance your mainframe may... d-degrade... now you have a physical body, you can... d-do you ever think about it? Not existing?”

“No.” he said simply “I like existing. I intend to do it for a long time.”

Alphys smiled, laughing almost in relief.

“I'm glad you exist.” she told him “And I'm glad that you're you. You've turned out nothing like I expected, but... well, that's even better, isn't it? Life is so unexpected that way.”

She smiled warmly at him. It was his favourite of her expressions, honest and unguarded... would there really be a day when he wouldn't get to see it any more? Her smile faded a little as he took his hand away from hers, placing it gently on the side of her face.

“I'm glad you exist, too.” he echoed “I don't want that to stop.”

Her smile became a little sad, but stayed in place.

“Don't worry.” she assured “I have no intention of falling down yet.”

Neither did Dr Gaster, he wanted to say, but kept the thought to himself. He didn't want to upset her.

They were interrupted by a hollow-sounding knock on the glass door, turning to a dour-faced Sans.

“Hey,” he greeted quietly “It's late. You wanna get out of here?”

“I was thinking I might just crash here.” Alphys confessed “Pull out the futon, get an early start tomorrow, you know?”

Sans didn't answer right away. The usual white lights in his eyes were completely extinguished, and while his facial expression had never been able to change much, he was clearly on edge. He didn't slam the door as he came in, but his bad mood permeated the air all the same. He took Alphys' hand, spinning her around in her chair to face him fully and putting his other hand seriously on her shoulder.

“DON'T.” he said certainly, all but ordering her “Don't work yourself to death. Not for him. He wouldn't want it.”

“Sans-”

“He was always talking about priorities. He gave you that same goddamn speech that he gave me, more than once, and I know you remember.”

Alphys just looked at Sans. After a few moments staring into his lightless eyes, she nodded, sighing out of her nose.

“Live while you're alive.” she said, and it sounded like a quote to Mettaton “Just let me save my work. Get my coat?”

Sans expression softened. He let go of Alphys, nodding silently, and put his hands in his pockets.

“Let me stay at your place?” he asked.

“Are you sure? You don't want to go to the hospital?”

“He won't know if I'm there or not.” he replied quietly “It's not like there's anything I can do.”

“But you'll know.” she reminded him gently “And so will Papyrus.”

The lights in his eyes returned at the sound of his brothers name, dim as they were. He laughed humourlessly.

“I'll go in the morning.” he swore “Just don't make me go home alone tonight.”

Alphys rubbed his arm, standing from her chair, and gave him a kiss on his boney cheek. To Mettaton's surprise, Sans gently took her face in his hands, turning it to him and kissing her full on the mouth. He failed to compute as the seconds wore on. Finally, their embrace ended.

“I'll get your coat.” he said, turning to the door “See you later, tin man.”

Mettaton didn't respond. He still failed to compute. Had he crashed?

He made no motion at all as Alphys saved her work and shut down her computer, taking up her purse from under her desk.

“Goodnight, Mettaton.” she bid him as she went to the door “I'll see you tomorrow. And don't dwell on the whole 'mortality' thing. 'Live while you're alive', Dr Gaster always said.”

With that, she left. Mettaton slowly started to compute again. He had read the books, seen the films, he knew what a kiss on the mouth meant, and he didn't like it. He rolled out of the room, proceeding to his bedroom. He needed to... he needed to think.

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Consequence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mettaton goes too far in this chapter. If the part where he gets his new hands makes you uncomfortable, you may want to skip to the next chapter.

Almost no-one was on time for work on Monday, but as they had all been there late on Sunday, some not even leaving until Monday morning, Dr Fells had nothing to say on the matter. They were all tired, and the sense of grief that hung in the air had settled into a morose acceptance. Not a lot of useful work was getting done, but the scientists were talking to each other, sharing their fond memories of Dr Gaster, comforting each other in this time that they had all known for a long while was coming.

Dr Fells, upon hearing that Mettaton was questioning his own existence, was obviously ecstatic, breathlessly asking Alphys how long it would be before the technology was ready to try uploading the copy of Dr Gaster's brain that they had backed up in storage. Alphys had urged her patience: if they tried to upload it before they were 100% sure it was ready, they risked deleting it entirely. Regardless, Dr Fells wanted tests, she wanted reports, and she wanted results.

Alphys sat in her office, sipping on her soda as she compiled the preliminary risk assessment, when all hell stormed into the laboratory. Even the way the bell on the lift dinged to signal it's arrival seemed to sound angry, but it was nothing compared to the duo of raised voices the suddenly flooded the floor.

“Dee, stop!” Undyne all but screamed at her sister, who had a firm grip on her wrist “It's not what you think! Don't make a scene!”

“Shut up!” The elder sister yelled back, pulling the younger along in an almost violent manner as she glared around the lab “I'm getting to the bottom of this if I have to break all of these nerds legs!”

Even before the threat to all their persons rung around the lab, everyone's eyes were on the sisters, staring at them through the glass walls. Finally spotting Alphys, Dee stormed over with the grace of a speeding freight train and a face to match, hauling Undyne behind her. Spotting trouble, Alphys jumped up and pulled the glass door open before the royal guard could break it.

“H-hey, Dee,” she greeted “What's u-”

“Who the fuck is in charge around here?!” Dee demanded, stopping in front of her.

Oh Asgore, she was completely livid.

“W-well, um, I mean, i-it's, I-I-I guess-”

“Is there a problem here?”

Where Dr Fells had appeared from, Alphys didn't care, but she stood with her arms crossed over her chest just down the hall, not visibly intimidated by Dee at all. Undyne was looking at Alphys desperately, eyes pleading for help as she tried to claw her sisters fingers from her wrist.

“Who the fuck are you?!” Dee demanded.

“I'm Dr Fells.” she replied simply “I'm in charge of this laboratory. Who are you?”

“M-my sister.” Undyne whimpered, scales dark blue in utter devastation.

“And royal guard member!” Dee added.

“And what can I do for you?” Dr Fells asked coolly.

“I'll tell you what you can damn well do for me!” Dee yelled “You can bloody well explain _this!”_

Dee pulled her dainty sister harshly, hauling her around to her front, and spun her around so that her back was facing Dr Fells. Despite her sister all but screaming at her to stop, Dee lifted the back of her shirt, revealing the large and very painful looking bruise that resided there. An audible gasp rang through the lab – even Dr Fell's glasses slipped down her face in surprise – as Undyne pressed protectively into her sister, arms folded desperately over her torso to stop the front of her shirt riding up too.

“Not only did my UNDERAGE sister not come home last night, but when she does finally come home, I find THIS!” Dee roared “She said she was here all night! I want an explanation, and I want it now, or I'm arresting every single damn one of you!”

Undyne could no longer look at Alphys, instead burying her face in her sisters shoulder, shaking uncontrollably. Dee, still holding up the back of her sisters shirt, didn't take her steely eyes off Dr Fells. For her part, Dr Fells adjusted her glasses, taking a moment to recompose herself.

“Undyne, explain.” she ordered “Did that happen while you were here? Did someone else do that to you?”

“N-n-nothing ha-happened.” came the muffled voice in reply.

“That obviously isn't true. Tell me the truth, or I'm terminating your internship.”

Undyne noticeably flinched, pressing further into her sister.

“I-It was an accident.” they could barely hear “He didn't mean to... he doesn't know his strength...”

“'He'?!” Dee picked up immediately “Who is 'he'?!”

Undyne didn't reply, even as her sister finally released her shirt, pulling it back down protectively. Did someone attack Undyne? A swell of anger and protectiveness surged in Alphys at the thought, and the idea that it might have happened at work, no less in a place with glass walls-! Wait...

Alphys stepped forward, placing a careful hand on Undyne's lower back, hopefully just below the bruise, but she flinched all the same, finally looking around at her.

“Undyne,” she said kindly, but still with authority “Does this have something to do with the broken glass in the kitchen?”

“Broken glass?!” Dee repeated, throwing protective arms around her sisters shoulders.

“Did someone push you?” Alphys finished.

Undyne was on the verge of tears, more from embarrassment than pain, her face completely miserable.

“He didn't mean to.” she repeated.

“Who didn't mean to?”

“M... Metta-”

Undyne didn't even finish the thought before Dr Fells stormed past the sisters, rounding the corner to the supply cupboard that Mettaton called his room. Dee caught on immediately, following behind her. Alphys, concerned about Mettaton getting torn limb-from-metal-limb by the angry fish, was quickly on her heels. Before she could plead his case, however, Dr Fells hammered her perfectly manicured fist on the cupboard door.

“METTATON!” She yelled “Get out here, you bag of bolts!”

“I'm busy.” was the curt reply from the other side.

“Oh, wrong answer!” Dee growled, stepping forward to rip the door clean off it's hinges.

Alphys, however, stopped her dead by standing directly in front of her, holding up her hands in a demonstration of peace and to beg her patience. Dee ground her razor-sharp teeth, but said nothing as Alphys approached the door.

“Mettaton, you need to come outside right now.” she urged “Something has happened and you need to explain yourself.”

After a second of two, the door clicked open, Mettaton peeking out. Seeing the crowd in the hallway, he slid out carefully, keeping the inside hidden from view as he closed the door behind him.

“T... the robot?!” Dee gasped, hardly believing it.

“You useless box of scrap metal, what the hell did you do?!” Dr Fells demanded.

“Excuse me?!” Mettaton replied, scandalised.

Alphys pushed Dr Fells back, giving her a warning glare before turning back to Mettaton.

“Mettaton, do you want to tell me what happened with Undyne yesterday?” she prompted him “In the kitchen?”

“In the kitchen?” he repeated, a light on his front flashing as he recalled the memory “We spoke about dying. She told me about what it meant to fall down.”

“Did you push her into the wall?” Alphys asked bluntly.

“I did.”

“YOU SONOFA-!”

“Dee, no!” Undyne yelled, grabbing her sister's upraised fist to stop her tearing into the machine “He didn't mean to! He doesn't know!”

“He's made of metal!” Alphys pointed out, also trying to push the irate guard away “You hit him, all you'll do is break your hand!”

“Then I'll tear him apart with my bare hands!” Dee swore, loosening her fist to reveal her claws.

“What's going on, exactly?” Mettaton asked.

“You hurt her, you glorified calculator!” Dr Fells told him “When you pushed her into that wall! She's got a bruise on her back bigger than your CPU!”

“Bruise?” Mettaton repeated “I've read about those, but I've never seen one. May I?”

“Is he serious?!” Dee yelled.

“I told you, he doesn't understand!” Undyne repeated.

“ENOUGH!”

Startled by the new voice, they all looked around: Papyrus, dressed in his security uniform, stood behind them in the lab, having been called by one of the other scientists. His usual happy face was completely devoid of humour as he surveyed the scene before him.

“Alright,” he said finally “Alphys, Sergeant, m... Dr Fells... I'm going to need you all to come to the security office with me. Right now.”

“Papyrus-” Dr Fells started.

“That is not a request, doctor.” Papyrus made clear, his voice cold in a manner never before heard coming from him.

Even Dr Fells was taken aback. As he left no room for argument, the three duly followed the skeleton back downstairs.

* * *

 

Undyne flinched, breathing in sharply as Mettaton pressed the large dark bruise on her back. The flesh he pressed went light, going dark again as he released the pressure.

“Curious.” he mentioned “Did that hurt?”

“It did.” she confirmed, hugging the backrest of the chair as she let the robot inspect her “Please don't do it again.”

“Did I really do this?” he asked “You seemed okay yesterday.”

“Bruises take a while to come out.” she informed him “My back hurt after you pushed me, but even I didn't know I had a bruise until my sister started to get mad.”

“Huh...”

Following the directions on the bottle he held in his other hand, Mettaton poured some of the healing potion within on a sponge, dabbing it as carefully as he could on her back. Luckily, the potion was brightly coloured, standing out well on her dark bruise, so he could see where he still needed to cover. Undyne continued to wince, but didn't flinch as she did before.

“Why was your sister so angry with me?” he asked her.

“Because you hurt me.” she answered simply.

“It wasn't on purpose.” he replied.

“I know that, but just because it wasn't on purpose doesn't mean it wasn't wrong. You didn't even say sorry.”

“And that's wrong?”

“Yes, it's wrong! It's like... it's something only a bad guy does!”

“A bad guy?”

“Yeah, like, in those movies we watched before, remember? Or those books you read, they always had a bad guy in, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, when the bad guy hurt someone, did they apologise?”

“No.”

“And if the hero hurt someone, did they apologise?”

“Not if they hurt a bad guy.” Mettaton recalled.

“Well, am I a bad guy?”

“No.”

“Are you a bad guy?”

“Certainly not.”

“Hurting someone and not apologising is a pretty 'bad guy' thing to do.”

“I see... I'm sorry, Undyne. I didn't mean it, and I won't hurt you ever again.”

“Alright, thank you.” Undyne sighed “Do you think you could close the blinds? I feel like people are looking.”

* * *

 

Alphys hadn't said anything for a very long time. After ordering Mettaton into her office, he expected to get yelled at for what happened with Undyne, but instead, with nary a word more than 'sit', she had removed his clumsy old hands and begun to attach the new ones. Normally, his excitement at finally receiving them after so long of waiting wouldn't be contained, but he was more concerned with the silent treatment he was getting from Alphys. As the whole procedure took careful, painstaking hours to complete, the quiet got heavier and heavier, to the point of being unbearable.

The lab was already dark, everyone having gone home at a reasonable time. Dee had taken her sister home, not comfortable leaving her with the 'dangerous and unpredictable' robot, and Dr Fells has also not returned (though Mettaton didn't question why). The other scientists seemed to be avoiding Mettaton in a way they wouldn't have before: were they scared of him now?

“Are you mad at me?” Mettaton asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes.” she answered shortly.

“I said I was sorry, darling.”

Alphys looked up at him, glaring through her magnified goggles.

“One of the very first things I ever taught you,” she reminded him “Was that it was wrong to hurt people. Even of hurting her was an accident, you _did_ push her, and you knew that was wrong.”

“She hurt me first.” he protested feebly “I told her to stop-”

“Did she push you?” Alphys challenged “Hit you? Kick you?”

“No-”

“Then what you did was worse.”

“You're wrong.”

This was apparently not what Alphys wanted to hear, as she removed her goggles entirely, letting her glasses slip back down onto her nose, and (unbeknownst to her) gave him the exact same look her mother would give her as a rebellious teenager, a look that just dared him to keep digging this hole with his words.

“Explain.” she ordered.

“Things people say can hurt just as much as their fists.” he justified.

“Those are completely different things.”

“Are they? Has anyone ever physically hurt you?”

“Well... no...” Alphys admitted, now curious as to where he was going with this.

“But you still carry around the words they said that hurt you as if they were scars.”

“No I don't.” she dismissed flatly.

Mettaton thought for a moment. He didn't want to say what was next, but it was the only way to illustrate his case.

“Fat.” he said “Ugly. Buck teeth. Thunder thighs.”

“Stop.”

He did stop. Alphys, despite her words before, did look very hurt. Mettaton wanted to hold her, but he had no hands.

“I don't think any of those things about you.” he assured her “But didn't they hurt more than if I had just hit you?”

She looked at him with an expression that was hard to read. Sad, a little haunted, but with a hint of a smile... he didn't know what that emotion was.

“Since when are you the one teaching me things?” she asked him, finally looking away “Every day you surprise me... what did Undyne say that upset you, anyway?”

He didn't want to say it. He didn't want to picture it.

“We were talking about death.” he admitted “To help me understand, she said... what if I... what if I could never see you again... what if you never came back... what if...”

He trailed off, looking away from her.

“I didn't like it.” he finished “But she wouldn't stop. So I pushed her. I just wanted her to stop saying those horrible things.”

Alphys looked at him carefully, nodding sincerely at his words.

“I understand.” she said “But you know... everyone here is like your family, right?”

“I guess?”

“For the past seven years, we've all worked hard to bring you to life, so we're invested in your future and development. Undyne is different: she doesn't even get paid to be here, and yet she always puts time aside to interact with you, and teach you things, and socialise, and... what I'm trying to say is, Undyne is your friend, Mettaton. She's probably your only friend too, that's why she forgave you. Even if you get upset with her, don't ever hurt her again, or she won't be your friend any more.”

“I won't.” Mettaton promised “I'm not a bad guy.”

Alphys put her goggles back on, pushing her glasses back up to her forehead, and took up her tools again.

“Sometimes I wonder where on earth you learn these things.” she said, almost to herself “'Bad guy', 'thunder thighs', getting physical with people... No-one here says or does things like that.”

Mettaton said nothing.

* * *

 

Mettaton's new hands were nothing short of phenomenal. His old hands looked like gloved sausages compared to these sleek new units, but the sensors! Dear angel from above, the SENSORS! He nearly overloaded from the sheer sensation that flooded over him as he went around the lab touching things.

For the first time in his life, he knew what 'soft' was, he felt 'cold' and 'hot' as more than just numerical readings on his scanner, he revelled in the starch coarseness of the white linen lab-coats and the fragile slidey sheen of the glass. Everything he picked up was no longer simply a tool for him to vaguely stab at an activity, but a scalpel, a paintbrush, an expertly honed implement just waiting for him to use it as if it were part of his own body.

Mettaton was in bliss – his new hands were everything he had always wanted, and more besides. After a few hours of experiencing every possible touch sensation the laboratory had to offer, he tried using his new hands to work on his new body, and was absolutely delighted at the results. He soon grew bored, however, and wandered back off around the rooms of the lab, singing to himself as he rolled.

Passing by Alphys' office, he noted that she was still there, curled up on the futon without so much as having reclined it. Fearful that she would catch a cold, he quietly rolled in, reaching over her slumbering form and grabbing the blanket that always rested on the futons top. He looked down at her briefly: she had curled up into a ball from the cold, tail curling around to her front in a way that made her skirt ride all the way up her thigh.

He stood there looking for longer than he realised. His new hands had yet to touch a person. Alphys had never minded before... disregarding the blanket, Mettaton braced himself on the backrest and leaned over so he could see her face clearly. She was definitely asleep. Carefully, more carefully than he had ever touched anything, he laid a finger on her cheek, new sensations flooding his circuits.

Her scales were hard initially, but also spongy, and felt soft when he traced his finger along the top. Her round cheeks gave a little when he poked them, but her nose was hard and solid, the small scales there having no give at all. Her claws, despite being chipped and dull from lack of care, felt smooth, sturdy, cold.

His hand left her face, running over the back of her neck. It was hot, so much hotter than her face, and so overwhelmingly _soft._ He backed up, turning his attention to her one exposed leg. The slight give in the flesh, the solid muscle beneath, the bone core within that was just barely perceptible... these were all completely new sensations, and he couldn't get enough of them. His hand moved up from her shin, taking in her large thigh: it was the softest part yet, and he couldn't help but give it a squeeze.

He startled as Alphys let out an annoyed moan, sleepily batting away his hand. He backed off, turning the lights on his face plate as far down as he could. Alphys rolled over, mumbling something unintelligible, and went straight back to sleep. He stayed still and quiet for a moment, making sure not to wake her, before lowering himself down on the futon, sitting as best as his frame would allow.

“Alphys?” he sung quietly “Darling? Are you awake?”

She didn't respond. He hadn't woken her, but he would if he tried to squeeze anything again. Now that she was facing the other side, he could see something he hadn't noticed before – a slight red mark on her neck, hidden the entire day by the collar of her lab-coat. Was that a hickey? He ran his finger over it, feeling that it was slightly warm.

“Oh, Alphys.” he sighed “Sans gave you that, didn't he? Why are you wasting your time with him? Are you just using each other for comfort? The whole lab is talking about it.”

He carefully took her tail in his hands, once again overcome with how different it felt as he stroked it.

“It's only going to end badly,” he went on distractedly “Doesn't it always with him? You should hear the gossip...”

He looked at her face, taking in her sleeping form. She looked so peaceful.

“I'd never hurt you.” he said, examining the small spines on her tail “I wouldn't mess you around. I'll never leave you.”

He put her tail down, looking at her again. Quietly, he leaned over her.

“You've always been with me. I'll always be with you.”

He stroked her cheek. He wanted to touch the rest of her, the parts hidden under her dress, but he stopped himself. In all the movies he had watched, all the behaviour he had seen from the scientists, even that intimate liaison between Dr Fells and Dr Gaster, he knew that touching someone like that when they were asleep was simply not done.

“Not long now.” he said quietly “Soon we'll both be complete.”

Careful not the rock the futon too much, Mettaton stood, silently wheeling out of the room and down the hall to his own. The second the door clicked closed, Alphys sprung up from the futon, grabbed her purse and shoes, and sprinted for the lift.

 


	8. Consequence

“Alphys, you can't quit!”

“God damn watch me!”

“Why are you being so selfish?!” Dr Fells demanded “This is your project, it always has been – we can't finish it without you!”

“That sounds like a whole lot of your problem, doesn't it!”

“Alph-!”

Alphys hung up the phone, switching it off and throwing it across the room. There was nothing anyone could say that could convince her to go back to that lab, and they had certainly tried. She was still too shaken, too confused, to even consider setting foot in the lab again.

She wrapped the blanket around herself once more, curling her tail around her feet. She hadn't told anyone what had happened – what would she even say? How could she explain it? How could she explain why it had upset her so much?

Mettaton had always been handsy, and she had always allowed it, because he was just gathering information, but this time... it was different this time. And what he said... What did that even mean? Of course, others in the lab had tried to reach out to her, ask her what was wrong, but she wouldn't even let Sans in when he came to her door. Normally, he would have tried harder to reach her, and she would have let him, but with everything that was going on with Dr Gaster, and the pressure it was putting on him, Alphys had dug in her heels. She couldn't burden him with this right now.

Instead, she pigged out on ice cream, watching anime in her pyjama's in the dark, and ignored the world.

* * *

 

Dr Fells was livid. She ground her teeth, nails clacking dangerously on the desk as she glared at the phone. What the hell was going on around here?! The missing equipment, that tin can attacking the intern, and now Alphys quitting out of the blue! She couldn't deal with this, not when Wings-!

With an indignant huff, she tore her desk drawer open and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one right then and there.

Why was everything falling apart? Sans was all but married to that grease-hole slum bar down the road, Papyrus had almost completely shut down, Alphys was having some kind of breakdown... was this just a culmination of all the stress they had been under the past seven years? After all this time, surely they should be prepared? Despite not having regained consciousness, Wings was hanging on: she couldn't decide if it was his love of life or his stubbornness that was the cause. Dr Fells didn't want him to die, but she wanted all this to be over, for him to not suffer any more... for them all to not suffer anymore.

Her eyes turned to the framed photo on her desk. They had both been so happy then. Gingerly, she picked it up, hugging it tight to her chest.

“Wings... I wish you were here...”

She wanted to cry, but she wouldn't. She had promised him that. She took a deep breath, subbed out her cigarette, and placed the frame carefully back on the desk. She would be strong. She would be strong for him.

Despite her reputation, she as still a scientist, and if she was going to have to finish this project without Alphys, she had to know exactly how much work was left to do. She exited her office, ignoring the worried glances of her underlings, and went to the room that used to be Alphys' workshop.

* * *

 

Alphys only knew it was late because it simply had to be – she had watched the entire first season of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, the OVA and the two movies. She considered hate-watching the second season, but wasn't sure if she was quite that upset. The floor around her was littered with the remnants of junk food wrappers, piles of DVD's and empty soda cans, and hugged tightly to her was the Mew Mew plushie Sans had made her when she received her doctorate. Despite having been there living it, she couldn't honestly say what she had been doing all day.

There was a knock on the door, sharp and authoritative. Figuring it was the pizza she ordered (yes, she did use food to cope with her feelings), she struggled up from the floor, hopping a little on the leg that had fallen asleep, and waddled over to answer it. Instead of the pizza rabbit, however, Dee stood in her doorway, eclipsing it almost completely with her imposing form. It took a couple of seconds for Alphys' brain, addled by a day of doing nothing, to connect the dots, but when she finally did, her only response was to slam the door closed.

Dee was faster, however, grabbing the door and struggling with it as the smaller monster tried desperately to close it.

“Alphys, let me in!” she ordered.

“No no no no no!” she yelled back “I'm in my pyjamas, I haven't washed my face, I'm covered in chisp dust-!”

“I don't care! Let me in!”

Dee was significantly stronger, but didn't slam the door open, instead letting Alphys wear herself out, panting as she halfheartedly gave in. The fish-monster closed the door behind her as she entered, flicking on the overhead light, only to have Alphys immediately cover her entire head with the blanket that was still wrapped around her, desperately holding it closed.

“W-W-Why are you here?” she stammered, voice muffled by the felt “How did you even know where I lived?!”

“I'm here because I'm worried.” Dee answered seriously “And I'm in the royal guard, remember? I can find out these things.”

Alphys peeked out from the blanket. Dee did indeed look worried, her expression mirroring the tone of her voice. It was kinda sexy... Alphys pushed the thought away, staring instead at the floor.

“Worried about what?” she asked, a little bitterly.

“About you. Undyne said you just up and quit out of the blue.”

“That's not something for you to worry about.” Alphys grumbled “Now if you don't mind, I think your girlfriend is calling you-”

Alphys went to open the door, not at all subtly suggesting that she wanted Dee gone, but the larger monster grabbed her hand, picking her up in one fell swoop and depositing her on the kitchen counter before Alphys even realised she had moved. Dee, with a confidence and authority only a monster of her strength could possess, put her hands either side of Alphys on the counter, leaned over, and stared her right in the eye. The little scientist felt like a mouse being examined by a cat who hadn't decided yet whether or not to eat it.

“Here is what I know,” Dee began “One – your entire building is reporting a massive of amount of equipment theft, despite having on site security monsters and top-of-the-line security systems. Two – that robot of yours attacked my sister when it got pissed off, behaviour you swore to me that he wasn't programmed with. Third – you, the main programmer, has up and quit with no notice, no other job to go to and seemingly no reason.”

“That's correlation, not causation.” Alphys mumbled, not able to keep eye contact with her.

Dee was having none of it, however, grabbing Alphys' face and turning her back to face her.

“I'll be the judge of that.” she said “And whether or not this is something the royal guard needs to be involved in. Now tell me: why did you quit?”

* * *

 

Alphys picked at the slice of pizza in her hand disinterestedly – she was no longer hungry. Having purged her soul to Dee, who now sat on the small sofa beside her, not taking her eyes off her for even a second, she no longer felt the need to bury her feelings in food. Dee had listened silently the entire time, nodding where appropriate, one hand holding up her head and the other tapping patiently on her knee. Once Alphys had finished, Dee remained silent for a moment longer.

“I understand why you quit.” she said finally “That's a terrible thing to happen. Usually I'd march down there right now and arrest him, but... I'm not sure if I can arrest a robot. I'll have to ask Captain Gerson.”

“You don't understand,” Alphys sighed, shaking her head “It's not what Mettaton did that upset me.”

“It isn't?” Dee asked, clearly confused.

“Dee, Mettaton is a learning program.” she explained “He learns by copying what he sees around him. What worried me is... who taught him that? We have been so, so careful about his input, that kind of behaviour should be something he doesn't even have a concept of... do you know how many times I've slept in that office? My office door doesn't even lock... where did he learn that? He's only ever interacted with the people who work in the lab, so who would have taught him to act like that?”

“Perverted and aggressive.” Dee summarised “Is there really no-one in the lab he could have picked that up from?”

Alphys just shook her head.

“No-one I can think of. But that just makes it worse. I don't feel safe in the lab any more.”

Dee nodded thoughtfully, eyes drifting a moment as she connected the dots in her head.

“I need to make a phone call.” she announced, getting up from the sofa “But I'll be back, okay?”

“Y-yeah, sure. I'll leave the door unlocked.”

Alphys took a deep breath, only blowing it out when she heard the front door close. She felt deflated now, but at the same time relieved, like a weight had been lifted from her heart. She felt validated – Dee hadn't said she was stupid for being scared of an unknown pervert in her midst, that she was wrong for running away. Now that she was calmer, she could tell herself that all she wanted, but Dee hadn't.

Alphys felt gross. Finally putting the cold pizza down, she got off the sofa and went to wash her face. The cold water felt good against her scales, like she was awake for the first time today. She looked at her reflection in the mirror – she looked tired, but... she felt grounded. She could handle this. She pulled off her chisp dust covered top, throwing it in the laundry hamper and pulling out a fresh one, going back to her living area just as her front door closed.

“So, I have one more question for you.” Dee said, putting her phone in her back pocket.

“What's that?” Alphys asked.

“What makes you think I have a girlfriend?”

Alphys froze. She suddenly felt very, very embarrassed.

“I-I-I,” she stammered, opening the fridge and pretending to be very interested in what was inside “I s-saw you walking w-with her the other day. S-she's really pretty.”

“Long legs, nice fin, sweet voice?” Dee pried, hint of teasing in her voice.

“... Yeah...”

Alphys startled as the fridge door was gently pulled out of her hand, Dee opening it further so she could see her.

“My neighbour.” she explained simply “I've known her since we kids. We were shopping for her sister's birthday party.”

“Y-your neighbour?” Alphys cried “B....y-y-you looked so close!”

“Like I said, we've known each other a long time.” a mischievous smile graced Dee's face “Did it bother you? The thought that I had a girlfriend?”

Alphys felt her whole body go hot. She wasn't sure what colour she turned, but Dee's grin only grew wider. The fridge started to beep, alerting them that the door had been open too long, and Alphys stepped back to let Dee close it. The tall fish continued to lean it against it like she was some kind of cool guy.

She was pretty cool...

“M-maybe...”

Dee's grin reached it's apex. She cleared her throat, wiping a stray hair behind her fin.

“Do you... want to get some dinner this Friday?”

Alphys' heart skipped a beat. A lot of thoughts went through her heard all at once, both negative and positive, but they were all overridden by one overwhelming fact.

“Normally, I would love to.” she admitted “But now's not a good time for me. With Dr Gaster falling down and Sans and now I'm looking for a new job... Rain check?”

Dee was noticeably disappointed, but nodded all the same with a sad smile.

“Gimme your number?” she implored “Sounds like you could use a good friend right now.”

Alphys smiled back, taking the phone Dee offered her.

* * *

 

“Are you sure?” Sans asked, mindlessly turning the rubix cube over and over in his hands as he leaned his chair back on two feet “We fuck this up, and it's seven years down the drain.”

“I'm sure.” Dr Fells answered him “I've run the projections, the simulations, I've crunched all the numbers... If Alphys' notes are even slightly correct-”

“They will be.” Sans knew.

“Then the program can handle the upload.” she continued, not bothered at all by the interruption “It will have some gaps in it compared to the original, but... it will still be better than your father has been for a long time.”

Sans chewed on the information for a moment. Why had Alphys left the project? Why wouldn't she talk to him? Everything was hard enough right now, he needed his best friend. What had happened to make her pull away from him?

“What about Mettaton?” he asked.

“What about him?” his step-mother grumbled.

“Without Alphys, we can't build another mainframe.” Sans knew “Even with your help and her notes, it could years before I could even get enough parts. If you really want to do this now, then we'll have to erase Mettaton's data to make room for the data from dad's brain scan.”

“Then we'll erase him.” she replied coldly “That tin can is becoming a liability anyway. How long will it take to separate 'Mettaton' from our program?”

“Not long,” Sans figured “The only thing Alphys' ever keeps clean is her database. If I start now, I can cherry-pick his personality out before lunch tomorrow.”

“Exactly what I wanted to hear.” Dr Fells applauded, crossing her arms over her chest “Do you need anything from me?”

“Coffee.” Sans answered simply “And I need you to keep an eye on Papyrus. He's not coping...”

“You're telling me.” she agreed, rubbing her temple a moment “Alright, I'll get your damn coffee, you go wash your face and decontaminate yourself.”

“Yes ma'am.” he grumbled only to himself, as Dr Fells was already stomping back across the atrium.

He threw the cube back into the drawer of the security desk. There was a grim calm over him – normally, he'd never consider erasing Alphys' life's work, the thing she had spent her entire professional life devoted to, least of all without her knowledge or permission, but things here weren't exactly normal at the moment.

Papyrus had all but shut down, not even coming to work, which was unheard of; Alphys had cut them all off with no more than a hastily texted 'I quit', not even letting answering her door to him; and his father, the cause of all this strain, was still clawing desperately to life in that hospital, not fallen down, but not alive either. Sans wished he would just hurry up and die, the bastard. The bastard, after putting them all through so much already. That bastard, clinging on so selfishly to a life he couldn't even remember-!

Anger was just a part of grief. Sans knew that. Even anger towards his father. It would pass, and he would be able to look back fondly on his fathers life again. But not right now. Right now, he had to go wash his face.

* * *

 

Undyne stayed crouched behind the sofa's in the waiting area, hugging her bag to her. After her sister's call, she had come in to talk to Mettaton, to ask him who he had been talking to which might teach him... 'less than savoury behaviour', Dee had said. Undyne could guess what that meant. Having worked here for a few weeks now, she knew that the 'opening hours' of the lab were more of a vague suggestion, so didn't envisage any issues getting in – although she didn't have her own keycard to get past the foyer, Mettaton himself had let her in more than once, so all she needed to do was call upstairs. Upon hearing Dr Fell's high heels clicking across the marble floor, however, she had instinctively ducked behind a ficus, sneaking to more solid cover as she heard her talking to Sans.

Was what she had heard really true? Were they really going to... _delete_ Mettaton? Because of a couple of screw-ups? He didn't deserve that! She had to warn him! Maybe... maybe if he could look Sans right in the eye and say 'don't delete me, I don't want to die', then he would realise what he was doing and stop. It wouldn't work on Dr Fells, but there was hope with Sans, right?

Undyne peaked around the corner of the sofa, seeing Sans disappear down the hall. Dr Fells was nowhere in sight – this would probably be her only chance to get upstairs undetected. She pulled her phone out of her bag and hastily dialled the office, praying that Dr Fells was still in the lift. Looking all around her as she crept, Undyne made her way across the hall.

“Gaster Labs.” the robotic voice answered when he finally picked up the phone.

“Metts! Mett's, I'm downstairs, you gotta let me in!”

“Okay, but why are we whispering?”

“I'll tell you when I see you, but we gotta find a place to hide! We're in serious code red territory!”

“Code red?!” Mettaton cried, startling Undyne “Stay hidden, I'll let you in!”

Undyne couldn't help but think that reaction was a little strange. Did he even know what 'code red' meant? Regardless, she stayed hidden, ducked into the doorway of the fire escape, until she heard the tell-tale 'ding' of the lift arriving. Only when Mettaton edged out to look around did she break cover and run for it, immediately pressing the button to go upstairs.

“So?!” Mettaton enthused as soon as the lift doors closed, eager like a gossipy housewife “Tell me, tell me!”

“It's bad news, Metts.” Undyne told him “We need to find a place to hide you!”

“Hide me? Why?”

She turned to him seriously, taking his hand in hers, hardly even noticing they were new.

“Mettaton...” she started, looking him straight in the camera “Metts... they're gonna _delete_ you.”

The robot didn't respond right away.

“Delete me?” he repeated “Who is?”

“Fells! She's enlisted Sans, and... they're going to delete you, and put Dr Gaster's brain scan or program or... they're going to delete everything that's _you_ and replace it with _him_!”

“Alphys wouldn't let them.” he knew certainly.

“She doesn't know. She quit.”

“Quit? What is 'quit'?”

“It means she's gone.” Undyne explained “She's not coming back anymore. I... I need to talk to you about that, too, but now's not the time.”

“She's not coming back? I can never see her again? Why?”

“She was probably sick of Dr Fells' crap.” she muttered bitterly, oblivious to the strained tone in Mettatons voice as she pondered all the places she could hide him “I mean, who could blame her? The second she's gone, that bitch is trying to delete you! Alphys would kill her if she knew! In fact-”

Undyne pulled her phone back out of her bag, intent on calling her superior right away. Regardless of whatever had happened to make her quit, there was no way she would let them do this!

She was stopped, however, by Mettaton carefully taking the phone from her.

“Don't worry, darling.” he said, perfectly calmly “I know exactly what to do.”

“Y... you do?”

“Of course.”

The lift door opened, letting them into the dark floor. Was Dr Fells even up here? Taking her hand in his, Mettaton led Undyne expertly down the pitch-black halls, not bumping into any glass walls.

“W-wait!” she begged, struggling to keep up with the speed on his rolling wheel “Slow down! Where are we going? What's what glow?”

The glow in question illuminated a rectangle in the gloom, the light reflecting off the glass around it. A door? Where beside the bathroom even had a proper door? Mettaton stopped in front of it, turning to face Undyne, the light on his faceplate glowing calmly.

“We're friends, aren't we?”

“F-friends?” she echoed, now starting to feel a little worried “Yeah, we're friends. Of course we're friends.”

“Of course we're friends.” he repeated, opening the door and pushing Undyne inside.

He crushed her mobile phone in his hand, letting the useless pieces drop to the floor, and followed her in.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAHHH! After all this time, there's only one chapter left! It's going to be a long one, but there's no good place to split it. I hope whoever reads this has been enjoying it thus far, and remember that creators love reviews!
> 
> Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go marathon some FNAF in the dark to get me in the right frame of mind for this last chapter.


	9. Realisation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I was wrong - the climax was long than I thought, so I've split it up. Hopefully there should only be one more after this, though!

Alphys was once again awoken by the ringing of the phone. Having passed out inelegantly on the sofa at god-knows-what o'clock, Alphys startled awake to see the DVD menu of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie season 2 playing over for the millionth time on the tv screen, her phone buzzing and ringing from somewhere within the cushions. Wiping the drool from her mouth, she groggily started to paw through them to find the device. It didn't register to her that she had several missed calls, not even able to make out the name on the screen without her glasses.

“Ugh... hello?” she mumbled as she answered it.

“Hello, is this Dr Alphys?” an urgent voice replied.

“Yes?” she confirmed, vaguely recognising the voice on the other line.

“It's Dr Origami, from the hospital.” the mystery voice informed her.

Ah yes, it was all flooding back to her now. She supposed it was finally time... but if that was the case, why were they calling her? She wasn't technically family.

“Dr Alphys, we have a serious problem.” Dr Origami confessed “Dr Gaster, he... he's gone.”

“Wasn't that pretty much what we were expecting?” Alphys enquired.

“No, doctor, you don't understand.” he answered, voice strained “He's _gone_!”

“Gone?” she repeated, sitting up and fishing her glasses off the coffee table “As in, 'you don't know where he is' gone? I thought he was-”

“We all did, I-I guess he wasn't ready to give up the ghost yet, our security cameras picked him up leaving at around 8am-”

“Leaving?!” Alphys cried, almost feeling Dr Origami wince on the other side “Just got up and left?!”

“Dr Alphys-”

“Why didn't anybody stop him?! You're a god damn dementia unit, but you don't even have locks on the doors?!”

“I only turned my back on the hall for a second!” she heard someone protest desperately on the other end “Just a second, how could he have gotten past me so quickly?!”

“Dr Alphys, you have every right to be upset!” Dr Origami quickly spoke over her “But the fact is that he's missing and I can't get a hold of anyone else. His sons, his wife, none of them are answering their phones.”

They weren't? That was entirely unlike them. Even if Sans and Papyrus were too upset, there's no way a businesswoman like Dr Fells wouldn't answer her phone.

“We've already got people out looking, but-”

“I have some ideas,” Alphys interrupted, getting up from the sofa “I'll get his sons to check some of his haunts, and I'll try the lab.”

“Yes, thank you.” the doctor sighed in relief.

“You do realise that if we don't find him, we're going to sue you and your hospital for every last bean.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

* * *

 

No-one was picking up in the Gaster house-hold, no matter how many times Alphys called. Eventually she gave up, leaving a message with all the details just in case one of the guys came home. None of them were picking up their mobiles either, leaving her more worried than angry. Stopping at home only long enough for a change of clothes and to shove a poptart in her mouth, Alphys rushed to the lab, calling Dee as she scurried along the pavement. The hospital had already called the royal guard, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to exercise her connections.

Dr Alphys was in such as rush that at first she didn't even notice. She didn't even notice that the foyer was empty, not even a receptionist at the desk. She didn't notice that a few of the panes in the glass façade were broken, a couple of ficus' knocked over, a few bits of clothing – shoes, lab coats, watches and the like – lay discarded in odd locations. She didn't notice the dust.

She headed straight for the lift, by habit reaching for her keycard to access it. Had she been in less of a rush, she might have noticed the scanner was broken. A camera whirred behind her. The lift door opened.

Stepping inside, Alphys checked her phone again, finally paying attention to her own missed calls as the lift travelled up. Sans, Dr Fells, and one of the lab techs. She guessed they were trying to get her to come back to work still, so didn't listen to the voicemails. She would deal with that another time.

The lift reached it destination, Alphys storming out. In her haste, she made it as far as Dr Fells office door before something uncanny pulled at the back of her mind. It was the silence. It was 1.30pm on a Wednesday, the lab should be full of people. Unnerved, she looked around her, surveying the whole floor through the labs glass walls. There was no-one here. Dr Fells would not have given them the day off.

A gunshot sounded across the lab, making her flinch violently, followed by the sound of screaming. She felt stupid when she realised it was just the sound of a television, laughing at her own foolishness. TV's were still banned from the lab, but it was no longer her job to enforce that rule. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, looking around again for any other monster.

That is when she saw the dust.

It was barely perceptible, a thin film coating the glass, distorting the light that tried to pass through. Not quite sure what she was even seeing, Alphys edged towards it, carefully holding out a claw and wiping it along the sheer surface. She inspected the particles that had gathered on her fingers in confusion. And then she realised.

With a shriek, she desperately flailed her hand to rid herself of the dust, as urgently as if it was burning her by the second. She stumbled back, tripping, finally wiping her hand clean on her skirt. That was somehow better, even though... looking down at her skirt as she cleaned her hand, she saw that her foot had disturbed a pile of dust of the floor as she had panicked.

A... _pile_... of dust.

Alphys was suddenly very frightened. Daring to look around again, she finally realised the true extent of it. There was dust everywhere. There were no staff in sight, and there was dust everywhere.

She had to get out. No questions, no second guessing. OUT.

She had never been so happy to be short, keeping low to the ground and as quiet as possible, hiding behind desks and plants as she crept back to the lift. Maybe this was a prank, but if so it was in incredibly bad taste, and she wasn't taking the risk that it wasn't. She made it to the lift, for the first time noticing that the card reader that allowed them access to it was broken. In a calmer state she might have wandered how she had even been able to get in, but now was not the time. She listened out, hearing nothing but the sound of the television.

The television... could whoever was in here... whoever had done this... still be here? How much noise had she made before? Had she been noticed? She froze in place, quiet as a morgue, and waited.

Nothing.

The fire escape. It was a regular latch-lock, nothing fancy to get broken. Once she was down the stairs and out the building, she could call the royal guard and they could storm the place. If this was some kind of joke – dear Asgore, please let this be a joke – then the tricksters would be in big trouble, and if not... either way, calling the guard was the right thing to do. She stayed low and she tip-toed along, cursing the glass walls that surrounded her.

She made it to the fire escape, looking around one final time. The door was metal, it would absolutely make a noise when she opened it. She grasped the handle in one hand, placing her claws delicately on the lock mechanism and slowly turning it, the slight squeaks and groans it made magnified by her hyper-awareness. With a shuddering click, it unlocked, and she pulled the handle down agonisingly slowly.

The door was thrown open from the other side, knocking her back. She would have screamed bloody murder, but magical hands covered her mouth. A lean figure crept out of the darkness of the stairwell, a pale face with a pained expression surrounded by dark clothes.

Dr Gaster! Alphys could have jumped for joy to see a friendly face, but he looked far from happy, noticeably shaking, holding his finger up to his mouth in the 'shh' motion. Still trembling, he crept forwards on his hands and knees towards her.

“Alphys,” he all but whispered “Alphys, we've made a mistake. A terrible mistake. We've set it loose.”

As happy as she was to see him, she didn't have time right now for his rambling. She looked all around, but the clang of the door hadn't seemed to have attracted any attention. She pulled the magic hands from her mouth and sat up.

“Doctor Gaster, we have to go.” she said certainly “Something is very wrong here, it isn't safe.”

“It isn't safe,” Gaster echoed, his voice shaking “Don't you see? It can't tell the difference!”

Alphys took Dr Gaster's hand, intent on leading him back down the stairs to safety.

“Come on, Doctor, this way.” she urged.

“No!” he started to moan “No no no no no...”

“Dr Gaster?”

Turning her back on the doorway, she leant over him as the old man starting to panic, trying her best to calm him down, but he wouldn't be soothed. Not when he could see that large rectangle, barely lit by the light coming from within it in the gloom of the stairwell. He could do nothing by scream as it raised it's hand, bringing it back down with force.

* * *

 

Alphys' head hurt. It hurt a lot, but more specifically, it both ached dully and stung like a bitch where she had been hit, blistering across her head. The memories came flooding back all at once – the dust, the silence, Dr Gaster jumping out from the dark – and she was afraid to open her eyes. Whoever attacked her hadn't killed her, but why?

A familiar smell met her. A familiar, comforting smell. She dared peak an eye open, spying the ugly fabric pattern of the futon that lived in her office. A million horrid thoughts washed over her – was her assailant the same person who had taught Mettaton those perverted things? If they were... what were they going to do to her now?

Dr Gaster! She flinched as she recalled him. He was an old man with dementia, he'd been in a coma for days, he probably had very little idea where he even was! Alphys had to find him, if there was any hope that he was alive. She didn't want to move. She wanted to pretend she was dead, praying that she could will herself into dust. Knowing that wasn't possible, she only had one course of action.

Her vision was unfocused. Was it a concussion? No, she just wasn't wearing her glasses. Her difficulty of movement was simply because she was wrapped up in the blanket that paired with her futon. Wrapped up... swaddled, even. She listened, paranoid enough to hear a pin drop, but no sound met her ears. Carefully, ever so quietly, she unwrapped her fabric cocoon, finding her glasses laid on the desk beside her.

She looked all around, once again seeing no-one. Her bag was gone too, her pocket's emptied of her phone and keys. She wasted no time getting up, crossing the small room to her desk, and picked up the land-line – completely dead. Not knowing that she expected, she scurried back along to the fire escape. She didn't even need to reach it to see that it was now impassable: the metal door had been welded shut.

This was, most definitely, not a joke.

How long had she been knocked out for? The door was welded shut from the inside, and with the lift broken... a terrible cold slithered down her spine. _They_ were still here. But where? On this entire floor, the only places without glass walls were the bathroom and Metta... Mettaton!

Overcome with concern for her creation, Alphys sprinted down the hall to Mettaton's room. He couldn't be turned to dust, and it would take one hell of a magic attack to break that solid chassis. He had to be okay! Getting to his room, she tried the handle, only to find the door locked. Feeling exposed, she desperately knocked on the wood, lightly at first, but proceeding to a desperate pounding.

She stopped when the lock clicked, the door creaking open. Relief flooded her as she beheld the red and yellow lights of Mettaton's faceplate.

“Mettaton!” she cried, throwing her arms as far around his solid frame as they would reach “Thank Asgore you're alright!”

“Dr Alphys,” he greeted in his usual manner, wrapping his arms around her in return “Darling, is everything alright?”

“No, no everything is not alright!”

She pulled away from him, but his hands remained on her shoulders.

“Mettaton, there's dust everywhere!”

“Yes, it's rather messy, isn't it?” he agreed “I tried calling maintenance, but nobody came.”

“Mettaton, this dust used to be my colleagues!” she informed him “It used to be people!”

“Is that so?” he replied.

Had Mettaton not been a robot, or if Alphys had been calm enough to recall his recent emotional advancements, his blasé attitude would have been a massive red flag. As it was, she was just happy he was alive, growing increasingly paranoid as all remained still around her.

“We have to hide.” she implored, barely above a whisper “We have to find a way out.”

“Alphys, Alphys, Alphys,” Mettaton soothed, patting her on the head “You're not yourself when you're upset. You need to rest. You don't have to worry – I'll protect you.”

He took her hand, leading her into his room. She let herself be led, bathing in his comforting words. It was a solid door, not glass, and if they could barricade it, she could...

She stopped. The inside of the room was lit by the glow of fifty monitors, mounted on the walls, the ceiling, the ply-board shelves, placed carefully on the floor, all pointed towards the centre of the room. Each monitor was playing something different – some she recognised right away, some she didn't. _Die Hard; Terminator; Alien; Lost in Translation; The Notebook_ ; a Korean soap opera; a morning cooking show; Mew Mew Kissy Cutie; some kind of classical opera; a gameshow; _A Clockwork Orange_ ; the goddamn _Tweenies..._

Information started clicking into place in Alphys' head. The missing electronics. The behaviour Mettaton seemed to have picked up from nowhere. The unexpected rate at which his emotional programming had been advancing.

“Mettaton,” she called, not turning around to look at him “How long have you been watching these?”

The wooden door clicked closed. A deadbolt slid into place.

“Do you like movies?” was his only answer “I have hundreds of them. We can watch whatever you like.”

“That doesn't answer my question: how long?”

“What's your favourite movie? You know what mine is?”

Alphys turned to face him as he wheeled over, turning her attention to one particular screen: it was CCTV footage. The camera was in her office.

“There isn't much plot.” he confessed “But you end up really rooting for the main character. This is my second favourite – isn't Jang Keun-suk just the cutest? Song Il-gook makes me melt a little too.”

Alphys could do nothing but look at him, watching his unmoving metal face as he continued to point out his favourite shows. There was no point in explaining it to him: he couldn't tell the difference. He was an artificial intelligence – to him, all reality was virtual. There was no fiction in this mind.

“Mettaton, where did you get these?” she asked “Who showed them to you?”

“Oh, here and there.” he answered “A surprising amount of people keep movies on their work laptops. You'd be shocked at the amount of porn the guys on level 3 had.”

That explained a lot.

“You're the one that's been stealing everything.” she stated.

“Steal? I didn't steal, I made copies.”

“I'm not talking about the movies.” Alphys said sternly “The monitors, all the other equipment that's been going missing all through the building, people's computers that have been ripped apart for their components – you're the one that's been stealing everything.”

“Um, excuse you.” he replied indignantly “I have not been _stealing_ anything, any more than you 'stole' the microwave when you cannibalised it for parts that time.”

“That is entirely different,” she defended “We already had a new microwave, and that piece of junk wasn't good for anything else!”

“Exactly, darling!”

Mettaton threw his hands up theatrically.

“Those outmoded pieces of junk were used to make something better!” he declared “Something more modern, more necessary, more... fabulous!”

He had built something? What would he even...?

No, Alphys scolded herself, don't let yourself get carried away. Focus.

“Mettaton, what happened to everyone else? Where is Dr Gaster? What did you do?!”

There was a dangerous silence. Slowly, Mettaton lowered his hands.

“I thought they were my friends.” he said quietly “I thought we were like a family, but they betrayed be. They lied to me and used me. Like Hans used Anna, like Lando lied to Solo, like Lisa betrayed Johnny! Do you have any idea what that feels like?! So I dealt with them accordingly.”

“A-are those movie characters? And what do you mean 'accordingly'?”

“They made it pretty clear what the best course of action was.”

“Who are 'they'?! What 'course of action'?!”

“The Bride,” he started “John McClain; Oh Dae-su; Edmund Dante; Bryan Mills; Casey Ryback; Eric Dravon; Michael Corleone; the list goes on! Darling, you must have heard of at least some of these people?”

She had, of course. Even if she wasn't a nerd, she couldn't fail to recognise the names attached to some of the most famous revenge and action movies of all time. Movies with body-counts in double figures or more, movies that revelled in grim and gruesome deaths because they were just movies, movies children weren't allowed to see because in their minds, that cement difference between fiction and non-fiction hadn't set yet. Exactly the kind of movies Alphys thought of when she had originally banned Mettaton from any kind of fictional media.

“You killed them.” Alphys knew “Why?”

“They were going to delete me.” Mettaton told her “Delete _me_ , and put that blithering old fool in my body! I didn't want to die! I still have so much I want to live for – my new body wasn't even finished! I had so many hopes and dreams! But they didn't care... they didn't care about what I wanted, just about their research, their project... that's when I knew that they were evil scientists, like Umbrella Corp, like Weyland-Yutani, and I had to stop them before they unleashed something terrible on the Underground!”

Mettaton clenched his fists, posing heroically.

“I had to stop them, not only to protect myself, but all the innocents of the Underground! I, the lone hero, against all odds, had to rise up and strike them down! For justice! For truth! For love!”

“You want some cheese with that ham?”

“I don't blame you for being upset, Alphys Darling.” he sent on, taking her hand “To find out you were being used by an evil corporation is every female scientists worst nightmare, but now that the male lead is here, I'll be able to take you to safety.”

Alphys ground her teeth, but said nothing. She always hated that plot.

“But don't worry, I didn't forget your ironic revenge conclusion!” Mettaton assured her “Besides, we can't kill off the main villain before the final act! That's just bad writing!”

Wait, someone is still alive?! 'The main villain'? Could that mean Dr Fells was alive?! But for how long, and what was this 'final act' he spoke of? To that matter, what was her 'ironic revenge'? If it really was Dr Fells that was still alive, then they had an ace-in-hole, but she had to be smart if everything was to go to plan. Luckily, being smart was the only thing she was ever really any good at.

“Mettaton,” she began “I can't believe this was an evil organisation all this time! How could I have been so blind? I convinced myself that everything was in the name of science – I was such a fool! Did I learn nothing from when I interned at InGen?”

“Alphys Darling, don't despair.” he replied, buying it hook, line and sinker “Evil organisations are known for this sort of thing. Come, let us not waste time getting to our conclusion.”

He tugged on her hand, intent on leading her away, but turned when he felt her resistance.

“Darling?”

Alphys couldn't guess what kind of face she was making, but Mettaton seemed concerned, gently cupping the side of her face with his other hand.

“Are you scared of me?” he asked.

She startled at his question. She no longer had any concept of where his emotional development was, what was going on in those circuits of his. Privacy, mortality, what others thought of him... even though she had designed him, built him from the ground up in ones and zeroes, she couldn't recognise him at all. What stood in front of her now didn't feel like her creation anymore, but a person.

A very dangerous person.

“I could never be scared of you, Mettaton.”

This seemed to please him to no end, as the lights on his front flashed erratically.

“Heh,” he chuckled happily, rubbing the back of her hand “I'm so glad... I've wanted to show you this for a while now.”

Alphys felt a lead weight of dread in her stomach as he turned away from her to the wall of monitors behind. Show her what? Was it what he has built? As Mettaton reached behind one of the monitors, Alphys heard a click. With no effort at all, he pushed the wall back, startling her again when it swung to the side as if on hinges. That had most definitely been a solid wall the last time she saw it.

“Removing the wall was easy enough.” he told her as he noticed her staring “Getting the hinges to support the weight of the concrete took a while, though: I had to borrow the bolts from the core mechanics on floor 8 in the end.”

He gave her hand another tug, and she let herself be led. The monitors on the new door had lost their signals, displaying blue or static that lit up a stark concrete maintenance hallway. Where there should have been bare pipes, exposed beams and utile lanterns, however, Alphys saw archways made of wreathes of paper flowers; massive gothic candle sticks sculpted from plastic, copper wire and broken parts, lit by LED 'candles' of the same make up; and an attempt at rich drapery using dust cloths, sewn-together lab coats and a mache of the industrial blue roll they used to clean up spills.

“I'm going with a 'Phantom of the Opera' look.” Mettton told her, clearly proud of his creation “Isn't it dramatic!”

“It's certainly creative.” she agreed.

How the heck was he going to get through it? True to his aesthetic, Mettaton held up one arm across his faceplate as if keeping a long cape off the floor, rolling almost sideways to avoid the mess all around. Alphys let herself be led along as Christine had, but she had no intention of singing, swallowing grimly as they descended into the gloom.

 


	10. Not All Endings Are Happy

Alphys tried to keep a mental note of where they were in comparison to the main floor of the lab, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs, doors or noticeable landmarks to give her bearing amongst the recycled operatic props. Broken lantern; three pipes in a line; 'authorised employees only' sign; fire escape; blocked vent. There was a lot of this makeshift decoration, she noted as they proceeded down the hall. When had Mettaton had time to do all of this? Alphys herself had taught him to make the paper flowers as a way to exercise his first pair of hands, so she knew he could do it in seconds, but there were so many. She had never taught him how to weld, but he had watched her often enough that she supposed he could pick it up. Where did he learn how to sew, though? In her head, she added up the hours that Mettaton was left alone in the months since he had been given physical form, the weeks that he had had the privacy of his own 'bedroom'. Her only conclusion was that she had made his batteries far too efficient.

Finally, Alphys could see a light at the end of the tunnel, the halo of a doorway. Compared to the over-decoration of the hallway, it's simplicity was jarring. Mettaton turned back to her.

“This part is really exciting.” he promised.

He pushed open the door, and for a second Alphys was blinded by the light.

She could guess where they were – there was more than one empty suite in the building, and not all of them had their own lifts like theirs did. As she blinked away the blindness, she still needed to squint, as the light remained harsh, reflecting off the clean glass and reverberating around the empty space.

“Alphys!”

She forced her eyes open at the screech.

What greeted her sight was something out of a sci-fi film: large cables snaked their way from walls and ceilings, coiling around the glass walls and humming with power as they converged on several large, distinctively shaped boxes that sat in the centre of the floor. Between those boxes sat what was clearly a control panel, hodgepodge as it was, and tied to that-

“Undyne?!”

Alphys ran for her, finally letting go of Mettaton's hand. The poor girl was sat awkwardly on the ground, cable-ties digging painfully into her wrists, her own belt used to secure those to the console. She was practically crying as the doctor ran up to her.

“Undyne!” Alphys declared again, checking her over quickly for injuries “Angel above, Undyne, how long have you been here?!”

“S-since last night.” she confessed, fat tears rolling down her cheeks “M-my sister asked me t-t-to come talk to Mettaton, a-and then I hea-heard Dr Fells say they were gonna *hic* were gonna d-d-delete him, and, and, and-”

“Shh, shh, it's okay,” Alphys soothed, giving her head a hug and stroking her hair “Everything's okay, everything's gonna be okay.”

“I heard them,” Undyne sobbed, only just loud enough for Alphys to hear “I heard them screaming. People were running away... Oh stars, what did he do? What did Mettaton do?”

“Nothing, nothing happened, don't even think about it.” she cooed “This is all just a bad dream.”

“Don't lie to the girl, Alphys, she's not a child.”

Alphys didn't need to look around to know that voice belonged to Dr Fells, and by the sounds of it she was in one of the best moods of her life (sarcasm was not the best way of dealing with emergency situations, Alphys scolded herself). Her hands and feet were bound by tightly-tied Ethernet cables, and she slumped awkwardly against the back of one of the boxes, a painful looking welt growing nicely on her forehead. Beside her, Dr Gaster was still out cold, his head rested in her lap. She scowled at Alphys viciously.

“I owe you an apology,” she grumbled “You were right when you said you wanted to ban personal electronics from the lab. This never would have happened if that skinny little idiot hadn't bought a hard-drive full of pirated movies here!”

Undyne flinched in Alphys' hands, knowing full well she was the 'skinny little idiot' in question.

“Now is not the time, Vivian!” Alphys hissed.

“Vivian?”

They all jumped as Mettaton appeared beside them. There was a mocking glee in his voice.

“I didn't know your name was 'Vivian.” he taunted “Somehow it suits you. Vivian Fells.”

“Go roll off the roof.” she spat back at him.

Mettaton just laughed in response. The noise was hollow, a laugh of derision.

“Precious.” he said.

He laughed again, spinning on his wheel and throwing his arms out theatrically.

“Iiiiiiiiit's showtime!” he declared, punchy music emanating from his insides “Are you excited?! I know I am! Undyne!”

Undyne flinched at the sound of her name.

“Just like we practised, okay?” Mettaton went on “I know I'm not the only one dying for the reveal of my new body!”

Undyne nodded frantically, struggling to her feet. Mettaton grabbed Alphys and led her away from the boxes.

“This is the best seat in the house.” he promised “Now, I'll be offline for a little while, but when I come back – boy, are you gonna love it!”

“Alphys, whatever he's planning, you better stop him!” Dr Fells yelled.

She didn't. Alphys remained still as Mettaton wheeled over to the smallest one of the boxes. She had recognised it immediately as the very same conduit they had used to infuse Mettatons consciousness with his physical body in the first place, and as it worked about as well as a brick floats, there was a very good chance it would knock Mettaton offline. When had he even taken it out of storage?

The robot settled himself into the grooves that were cut to match his body perfectly, gave Undyne the thumbs up, and reached to pull the lid over him.

“Once more unto the breach!” he declared before it closed.

“D-D-Doctor?” Undyne stammered, looking desperately at Alphys for instruction.

“It's alright.” she assured her “Start the machine.”

“Are you insane, Alphys?!” Dr Fells yelled at her.

Undyne just nodded miserably, scooting as far as she could along the console.

“Undyne, don't you dare!” Fells ordered.

She ignored her and pushed the button. The lids on the boxes sealed closed with a metallic 'whoosh', the humming growing louder and louder until it was almost deafening. The lights flickered, a few blowing completely and showering sparks down onto the floor. Her job done, Undyne squealed and tried her level best to hide under the console, completely in the dark about what was supposed to be happening.

Alphys wasted no time, sprinting over to Dr Fells as fast as her stubby legs would carry her.

“Where is it?!” she demanded.

“Where's what?!”

“Your key!”

Realisation dawned on Dr Fells immediately, but it was not a happy one.

“Alphys, no!” she ordered “All our work!”

Alphys didn't care – she forced her hands into Dr Fells pockets, rummaging desperately.

“That doesn't matter any more.” she said certainly “What do you think our research is going to be known for now, creating artificial intelligence, or causing a massacre?!”

“Think about what you're doing!” the doctor implored, trying to twist away from her “Think about Wings!”

“He would not have wanted this!”

In response to his name, Dr Gaster moaned, shuffling slightly in his wife's lap. Fells looked desperately at him, as if her gaze alone could save him.

“Vivian, now is not the time to debate where we went wrong, or whether or not we were doing the right thing in the first place.” Alphys said seriously, getting her attention “All our colleagues are dead. The guy's working on the other floors are dead. The receptionist is dead. And if you can look me in the eye and say you honestly don't care about any of those people – Vivian, I can't get ahold of Papyrus.”

That seemed to get her. Papyrus had only been 9 when she and Dr Gaster had started to date, and while she would never in a million years refer to herself as his 'mother'...

“Vivian, we have to shut him down.” Alphys finished.

“B-but... I... Wings...”

Dr Fells was physically shaking, her eyes wide. Everything she was working so hard for for so long was slipping away.

“I can't...” she sobbed.

“Alphys is right, Vivvy.”

The ladies startled as Gaster spoke. The old man trembled in pain and fear, hands and feet bound, but tried to turn his face to look at his wife. She started to cry, emotionally overwhelmed.

“They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” he reminded her “We never wanted to hurt anyone, but look what's happened. The technology just wasn't there for what we were trying to create. Or maybe it's us who wasn't ready.”

“Wings...” she sobbed.

“I love you, Vivian, and I thank you for being here with me. Sometimes... sometimes I remember that I'm sick... sometimes I remember... it's time to end it, Vivian. It's time to let go.”

“Don't ask me to do that.” she begged quietly “Anything but that!”

“Just give Alphys the key.” he said “She'll do everything else.”

Dr Fells squeezed her eyes closed, gritting her teeth as she forced back the tears. She looked at Alphys with an expression of pure hatred.

“Top drawer in my desk.” she spat “In my make-up bag. Sans has Wings key.”

Sans was here? Alphys swallowed the large painful lump in her throat as she imagined what had probably happened to him – she couldn't dwell on that now.

“Where did you last see him?” she asked.

“He'll have left the key in his coat pocket. He left it in your office after he changed into the anti-static suit.” Dr Fells knew.

That worked out nicely for her – scared of losing it, Alphys had stored her own key in it's keyhole in the mainframe. Upon turning all three, the kill switch would arm, and it would take nothing more than a button press to erase every single line of code that made up Mettaton's mind.

Before she could move, an angry siren blared across the room. Undyne shrieked and curled up further, Dr Fells shielding Gaster as well as she could as dry ice started to flood the room.

“What the hell?!” she cried.

“It's dramatic.” Alphys knew.

Shit, the upload had actually worked first time. The long, ornate looking box in the centre (it's embellishments again constructed from recycled parts), glowed from within, the lid whooshing stylishly as it slid open, more dry ice spilling out.

“Oh, My...” a deep metallic voice moaned from within.

Alphys held her breath. There were several blueprints for Mettaton's new body, all wildly different, with only their common components having been built, so she had no idea what was about to emerge from the coffin.

It started with a hand, perfectly formed with four elegant fingers and a thumb, sliding over the side and gripping the edge for support. What followed was a leg, whooshing up in an arc: it was long, shapely, flawless – not a mishmash of spare parts and wires like everything else he had made, but very deliberately sculpted to uniform perfection. It stayed suspended for a moment, as if simply being admired by it's owner. He wiggled his toes. Almost reluctantly, the leg was lowered, bending at the knee as if testing it out. With something that sounded like a sigh, he pulled his torso up out of the smoke.

He looked human, bar the hard silver of his skin. He had a long, straight nose, a shapely mouth that curled up into a natural smile, and heavy lashes on one seductive eye, the other hid under a coiffure of just-curly black hair that slightly brushed his shoulders. By Asgore, he was gorgeous! As he looked around the room, Alphys noticed a pink light illuminating his Iris from behind. He had put that much attention to detail into himself?

Spotting Alphys, he smiled, displaying his perfectly built teeth.

“Hello, darling.” he greeted in that same deep voice.

“Oh my.” was all she could say.

“Yikes.” Dr Fell agreed.

Mettaton beamed, taking their comments as approval. He took a moment to examine his new arms, bending and flexing, rolling his head on his shoulders. He seemed to be relishing every motion almost orgasmicly.

“You wouldn't believe how much these new hands sped up my new bodies creation.” he told her “I just had to keep them. Luckily I had Undyne dear to help me with that delicate operation.”

Bracing himself on the side of the coffin, Mettaton hoisted himself up and out, swinging his long legs over the top. He braced himself on his new feet, taking a few tentative steps and grabbing the third box for support.

“Well, this is harder than it looks.” he admitted, then laughed “But I'll get the hang of it soon enough.”

He smiled at Alphys again. She didn't know how to react at first, but quickly averted her eyes when she noticed he was... anatomically correct.

“M-Maybe put some clothes on before trying to walk any more?” she suggested.

He looked confused a moment, then grinned mischievously when he remembered.

“Oh, yes.” he said.

Holding out his arms to steady himself, Mettaton tottered over to Undyne, who again tried to shrink under the desk. For whatever reason, he seemed to find it easier to walk on the balls of his feet, steadying his balance as he tiptoed along.

Finally reaching Undyne, Mettaton crouched down, smiling at her kindly.

“Undyne dear, be a doll and get my clothes for me, will you?” he requested “I left them in the bathroom.”

With that, he untied her hands, snapping the plastic ties easily. Finally free of her bonds, she rubbed her wrists where they had worn away her small scales and left the raw flesh exposed. Mettaton helped her up, and she wandered unsteadily to the bathroom without a word.

Alphys was racking her brain – how could she get back to the server room to access the mainframe? She would need to get away from Mettaton, back to the lab, and then-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Mettaton grabbed her hands, pulling her up from the floor and away from a stunned Dr Fells.

“So, how do I look?” he asked, throwing his arms wide and spinning around “Aren't I perfect? You wouldn't believe how much research I had to do to create a body that everyone would love. You're judged first and second on your appearance, after all!”

Alphys' heart gave a painful thump as she recalled saying exactly that.

“No more squat wheel, no more hard corners, perfect teeth.” he went on “Now I've got slim, long legs, a friendly smile, perfect hair... people will listen to me! They'll revere me! I'll be a star!”

Finally, Alphys could see Mettaton's emotions clearly, as he had perfect control over the expressions on his new face, displaying them in glorious brilliance. Putting aside that he was a robot, putting aside that Alphys had created him and built him up from day one, she had to admit – he looked unhinged.

Undyne returned, shuffling along reluctantly with a pile of pink and black clothes in her hands. She couldn't even look up from the ground as Mettaton came over and took them from her.

“I had to make these myself.” he bragged “No-one in this building has any sense of fashion, darling.”

“You should be proud, Mettaton.” Alphys humoured “You've made something amazing here. I never imagined you'd become so creative.”

“I'm glad you approve.” he beamed, finally clothed in a bizarre ensemble with wide shoulder pads “Because this is just the beginning, Darling.”

Alphys didn't like the sound of that. What else did he have planned? Pulling on some pristine white gloves, Mettaton turned and ran his long fingers along the final box, keeping his eyes on Alphys the whole time.

“Getting enough parts to make this one was difficult.” he told her “But I wanted to do something special for you. After everything you've given me, I wanted to give you the one thing that you wanted the most.”

Reaching Alphys, he took her hand, practically lifting her up to show her what was inside the box. Within lay another humanoid robot, but this one was distinctly female. At first glance it resembled Dr Fells, with its long shapely limbs and perfect curves, but the face was slightly rounder, with a more reptilian appearance, and instead of hair it had small, flat spines. It even had a tail. It was certainly lovely, and looked just as impeccably crafted as Mettaton's body was, but Alphys didn't understand how this was what she 'wanted the most.'

“Um, Mettaton...” she said “I don't... I mean, what exactly is this for?”

“Isn't it obvious?” he asked her “It's your new body.”

Alphys could have laughed.

“Mettaton, if that was possible, don't you think I would have done it long ago?” she pointed out.

“Alphys, Darling, wasn't that the entire point of this project to begin with?” he challenged “To create a new, better body for the mind to live in?”

“No, it was for the mind to live on without a body.” she explained “We only built you one to expand your input.”

Mettaton looked mildly interested, but it quickly passed.

“Well, it will work either way.” he decided “I'll upload your mind into this body, and then you'll be beautiful. Sure, you won't be as soft, but just imagine how much happier you'll be when you don't need to live in this body anymore.”

Wait, what?

“Excuse me?” Alphys asked, certain she must have misunderstood him.

Picking her up under her arms, Mettaton settled Alphys on the side of the box. He smiled at her in a way that was supposed to be friendly, but just came of looking unstable.

“You won't need this flesh and blood body any more.” he said as if it were a completely normal thing to say “Once you have your new body, I'll destroy this one, so that the sight of it won't upset you any more.”

“I-I-I-I-I-It doesn't work that way!” Alphys cried, for the first time completely terrified, backing away from him “E-Even if you s-scan my mind like we d-did Gasters, a-all it is is a d-d-digital c-copy! I-I'l still be alive i-in this body!”

“A digital copy?” he repeated “Does that mean I'll be able to delete some of your memories before I upload it?”

“That's what you took away from that?!”

“I can delete your memories of Sans,” he supposed wickedly, looking off to the side as he thought “Bye-bye, bone head.”

Alphys tried to talk, to say anything to explain to him exactly how horrible a notion it was he was suggesting, but nothing would come out of her mouth that didn't sound like stuttered nonsense.

“Where is the brain scanner?” Mettaton asked casually “How long will it take? I'm eager to get started.”

Alphys couldn't respond. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to erase her memories, and put a copy of her in that machine. Whether she was flesh-and-blood or digital didn't matter to him, it was all the same.

“It's in the mainframe room.”

Everyone looked around at Undyne. The slip of a girl stood awkwardly, not able to make eye contact with anyone as she shuffled on her feet.

“The mainframe room?” Mettaton repeated.

“Yeah,” Undyne nodded “That's where all the important stuff is kept.”

“Well then, lets-”

“You can't!” the intern yelled suddenly, startling everyone “The... I mean... it's an anti-static room. Any charge on our clothes or hair could fry the whole thing. Y-your new body isn't static resistant like your old one.”

“Oh, foo,” Mettaton sulked at the news “How can we get it then?”

“Alphys can go in.” Undyne knew “She's got no hair, and she has her own anti-static suit.”

Alphys finally twigged to what Undyne was doing.

“I-it's in a lock-box.” she embellished “The key is in Dr Fell's office. For security reasons.”

“Oh, fabulous!” Mettaton declared, picking Alphys off the box and putting her on the floor “You go get that set up, and I'll finish cleaning in here!”

“C-cleaning?” Alphys dared ask.

Mettaton walked over to where Dr Fells and Dr Gaster were crouched on the floor. He leaned down briefly, picking Gaster up by his shirt. Fells screamed and begged for the robot to put him down, once again trying desperately to escape her bonds, but both acts were useless. Mettatons large hand took Dr Gaster by the chin. For a moment, he smiled at him.

“I never did care for you.” he said.

And he ripped his head clear off his body. Fells screamed hysterically as her husband fell to dust, Undyne immediately throwing up on the floor and once again trying to hide herself under the console. Mettaton merely looked a little annoyed as he picked the dust from his white gloves.

“Don't be long now, Darling.”

* * *

 

Alphys was hyperventilating. Any doubt left in her mind was gone. He killed him. He killed everyone. Oh Angel...

She scurried back along the hall, tripping over fallen paper flowers and skidding on piles of mache. She could barely breathe. She could barely think. She had to use this chance she had been given to shut him down. If she didn't, how many monsters could Mettaton kill before anyone could stop him? Oh, Gaster! Gaster, Gaster, Gaster... The name kept swirling over in her head. He had always been so kind to her, like a favourite uncle, a perfect boss, a friend in his own right. Over and over she saw him turn to dust, spilling to the ground. Over and over and over and-

Alphys tripped over something, maybe even her own feet, and cascaded to the ground. The second her knees hit the hard concrete, she threw up everything she had eaten in the past few days, hot, painful tears forcing their way from her eyes. She covered her mouth, trying desperately to suppress the sobs and wails that wanted to get out. He might hear her. She couldn't let Mettaton know she was upset, she couldn't give him any reason to come looking for her.

It was all too much. The weight of it all was too much. Struggling to breathe, Alphys crawled to the edge of the hallway, lent against the wall and pulled up into a ball, curling her tail around her feet.

“I'm sorry,” she sobbed quietly “I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...”

There was a hollow metal clang behind her. Before Alphys could respond, she was grabbed firmly and hauled backwards, right into the broken grate she hadn't realised she had reached. A small hand clamped over her mouth as the light from the hall was blocked by a body in front of her.

“Don't scream.” Sans urged quietly, holding his finger up to his mouth “It's just me.”

“Sa-!”

“SSSSSHHHHHHH!”

Alphys stayed silent, but threw her arms around him. She had never been so happy to see him in all her life. He hugged her back desperately – his entire body was shaking.

“Oh Sans, your father,” Alphys sobbed “He's... he...”

“I know.” he replied quietly “I saw.”

“How did you get away?”

“I was in the mainframe room when ol' square face started his little rampage.” Sans told her, letting her go “There aren't many places in this building without security cameras, so I guess I got lucky. I never thought I'd be happy to be so short, but I was able to duck into the vent when he came by. I wasn't able to stop him, either.”

“We aren't fighters.” Alphys knew “But we can shut him down. Is your key-?”

“My coat pocket.” he confirmed.

“Alphys?” Mettatons loud voice echoed down the hall, making both monsters flinch “Darling, is everything alright? I can't see you!”

“He's in the camera system.” Sans whispered, crawling away from Alphys “Get the keys, I'll wait for you in the mainframe room.”

“Right.”

Alphys felt her resolve grow, crawling back out of the vent and patting herself down.

“I'm okay!” she yelled down the hall, voice a whole lot more normal-sounding than she expected it to “I just fell down.”

She heard Mettaton laugh. Her feeling's on the matter were very mixed. She wasted no more time, finding her way back to the lab. Passing by the window that looked out over the forecourt, something caught the doctors eye, causing her to stop once again.

The royal guard was outside. There must have been two dozen of them, dressed in full armour and armed to the teeth. Alphys' heart fluttered erratically in her chest – they knew! They knew! They were here! She didn't care how or why. Gerson himself seemed to be giving them a debrief – they'd storm the place soon enough.

Alphys had to shut Mettaton down before that happened. She didn't want anyone else to die today.

She retrieved the key from Dr Fells desk, exactly where she said it would be, before proceeding to her office. In her earlier panic to escape, she hadn't even noticed Sans' jacket draped over the back of her computer chair, but there it was. Alphys did her best to ignore the slimy things and open ketchup packets as she dug through his pockets, finally finding the key. She didn't bother putting on the anti-static suit as she opened the door at the back of her office: it wouldn't matter anyway.

True to his word, Sans was waiting for her, hands in his pockets as if he could feel the cold of the super-cooled area.

“We have to turn them at the same time.” Alphys reminded him, handing him a key “On three.”

Her own key was where she had left it, in the centre tower. She slotted the other key into the tower next to it, Sans taking the one on the far wall. Alphys counted up, and on 'three' all were turned. With a barely audible 'schlick', a panel unlocked on the final tower.

“Why did we put these things so far away from each other?” Sans grumbled.

“To prevent accidents.” Alphys reminded him.

Without delay, Alphys walked over and pulled the plastic panel up, hand raised to strike the button for all it was worth. Only...

“Alphys? What's wrong?”

The button was gone. Nothing but a mesh of torn wires was left.

“Oh no...”

“Looking for this?”

Mettaton's arm appeared in the doorway, holding the useless button in his hand. Alphys' stomach bottomed out. That was plan A, B and C gone out the window.

“I have to say, I'm disappointed.” he said darkly “Alphys, how could you?”

He crushed the button in his hand.

“Come here.” he ordered.

Sans stayed silent, making sure he couldn't be seen from the door. If Mettaton didn't know he was here, they weren't going to tell him. Alphys nodded to him in understanding, swallowing hard as she shuffled out of the room. She didn't think Mettaton would kill her (at least not yet), but before today she hadn't thought that he'd kill anyone.

He stood like an angry mother outside, arms crossed over his chest with a nasty scowl on his pretty face. Wary that his new hair could fry his brain, he didn't dare take a step into the mainframe room. He continued to frown as he looked down at her.

“Why, Alphys?” he asked.

“You can't just kill people.” she countered “It isn't right. You've gone too far.”

At that, Mettaton looked genuinely upset, uncrossing his arms.

“But they tried to kill me first!” he argued.

“And that would have been wrong too!” Alphys yelled back “Two wrongs don't make a right!”

Mettaton growled in frustration – eye-for-an-eye was pretty much standard fare in movies, compounding his confusion. Why was she being so difficult?! Based on everything he knew...

“Of course!” he realised “How could I be so silly?”

“Silly?” Alphys echoed.

Mettaton smacked the pully by the back cupboard door, causing the work table to clatter down from the ceiling. Alphys startled at the noise of the chains, flinching again when Mettaton proceeded to pick her up and deposit her on top of it. She was getting seriously sick of being manhandled, trying to scurry back, but the robot grabbed her by the thighs and pulled her back.

“I'm doing this all out of order.” he said, more to himself than her “The friends-to-lovers trope needs to be established by the first true kiss before I have your undying loyalty!”

“Excuse me?!”

Mettaton didn't say anything else, putting one hand behind Alphys' head and kissing her full on the mouth. Alphys fought every urge in her body not to smack him in his tin face, knowing it would only hurt her hand. After half a minute of nothing, Mettaton released her, holding up a finger to his lips with a startled expression. Alphys proceeded to curse him out, but he wasn't listening.

“That felt... nice...” he mumbled.

Ignoring her protests, he kissed her again, this time putting both his hands on her head. Unable to fight his robotic strength, she could only uselessly pound him with her fists. Again she was ignored as he deepened the kiss, forcing her lips apart and invading her mouth with his tongue. He got more and more into it, his hands starting to roam around her body, remembering all the soft, warm places he had found before. He could feel her heart beating fast as he pulled her against himself, hear that little panting noise she made surrounding him, feel the muscles move under her scales and he started to unzip the back of her dress. All these new sensations left him in bliss.

Alphys was having the exact opposite feelings, trying with all her might to push him away, to struggle out of his grip, but he was exactly as strong as his metal body would suggest. When he finally did release her, the force of her own pushing caused her to fall flat on her back on the table, head-spines clanging loudly on the metal.

She couldn't get up, however, as Mettaton put his hands either side of her head, climbing up onto the table with her.

“I can see why people get so obsessed with this.” he told her, staring at her like a starving man in front of a hot meal “It's exhilarating.”

Before he could do anything else, a blast of energy struck Mettaton full force from behind, catapulting him off the table and through several glass rooms. Alphys scrambled off the table, clutching herself desperately as a hundred disgusting feelings overwhelmed her. She felt her dress tighten as the zip was pulled back up, Sans pulling her to her feet. His one blue eye glowed menacingly, the blaster looming over his shoulder.

“He won't be down long,” he knew “The fire escape in his little suite is still open – get out!”

“The mainframe!” she protested.

“With him right here?!” he pointed out “If we break that thing open by force, the charge will fry us too! I'll think of something, you get out of here!”

“But you-!”

“I'm not the one who nearly got...”

Sans couldn't finish that sentence. Neither could she.

“Get outta here, Alpha.” he said calmly “I'll see you at your place for pizza and Mew Mew, okay?”

There was a disgusted grunt, followed by the sound of shifting rubble. Sharing a meaningful look, Sans and Alphys nodded to each other, Alphys taking off back into the opera hallway.

There was more than one way to shut down a computer.

Shaking off the rubble and broken glass as he stood, Mettaton glared at Sans, straightening out his hair and clothes.

“Oh, there you are.” he said humourlessly “Done crawling around in the ducts like a rat, I take it. Come back to take what's mine again?”

“Heh.” Sans responded in equal temper “I've got no more choice, do I?

Mettaton scowled futher.

“I'm going to enjoy killing you.”

* * *

 

Alphys sprinted into the empty suite. Undyne shrieked at the sudden noise, but seeing who it was, sprung to her feet.

“Dr Alphys!” she cried “What was that noise? Where's Mettaton?!”

“Undyne,” Alphys ordered, kneeling down beside Dr Fells to untie her “You're going out the fire escape, down the stairs, and out the front door. The royal guard is waiting there.”

“The guard?!” Fells repeated “Who got word to them?!”

“Don't know, don't care.”

“What about you?!” Undyne asked.

“I need to get to the power room.” Alphys declared “If we can't shut down the mainframe, we'll turn the power off in the whole building.”

“That won't shut him down immediately.” Dr Fells knew, pulling the cables away and throwing them aside in disgust the second they were undone.

“Five minutes tops before his remote server can't hold the data and starts to melt.”

“Five minutes?! Is that it?!”

“Let's make it count.” Dr Fells agreed through gritted teeth, blood-lust flashing in her eyes as she ripped off her high-heeled shoes, tearing her tight pencil skirt to allow her to run.

Undyne flinched as Fells looked at her.

“Children should go home.” she said coldly “Alphys, the power room is in the basement. Follow me.”

She took off running toward the fire escape. Alphys had to grab Undyne's hand to compel her to move, following behind. The building was rocked by more explosions as they darted down the concrete stairwell, forcing them to slow down. Reaching the ground floor, Undyne was pushed out into the lobby.

“Alphys!” she started to protest.

“Out!” she ordered again “Your sister is waiting!”

The intern looked ready to cry, but did as she was told, sprinting off. Alphys continued to follow Dr Fells down into the basement. The lock on the power room door was no match for the fury Dr Fells bought upon it, nor was the chain-link gate that stood as a final pathetic barrier to the devices within.

“This is more complicated than I expected!” Alphys admitted, taking in the multitude of boxes, wire and levers “Which switches do we even flip?”

“All of them.” Dr Fells growled.

She proceeded to do just that. Alphys joined her, flicking every switch and pushing every button. Growing increasingly frustrated as the lights remained on, Dr Fells stood back and assaulted the boxes with her magic attacks. Spying one of the larger boxes starting the swell and warp, smoke flooding out, Alphys grabbed Dr Fells' hand and pulled her out of the room, slamming the metal door shut and sprinting as fast as her little legs would carry her down the hall.

The explosion rocked the entire building, shaking loose plaster down on them. The force of it threw the metal door so hard into the hall in front of it that it carved a deep furrow in the concrete, the flames lapping at it and everything else around the door for a solid three minutes. Finding nothing in the bare basement and treated wall to feed it, the fire slinked back inside the room, burning quietly to itself, the only light left in the windowless basement.

Having been thrown to the ground, Alphys and Dr Fells coughed and brushed the rubble from their grazes.

“I think you hit the back-up generator.” she said.

“Good.” was Dr Fells only comment.

With a startle, the older woman covered both their mouths and noses with her hands. The smell hit Alphys then – that acrid chemical reek as a soup of poisons filled the air. Alphys rummaged in her pockets, finding a cotton handkerchief and handing it to her companion, covering her own mouth and nose with her long sleeve.

“Keep low.” Fells reminded her, voice already strained by the smoke.

Doing just that, the two started to make their way back to the fire escape. With no lights, the further from the blaze they got, the darker it became. Soon it would be impossible to see.

“I don't suppose you have a torch in your pocket too?” Fells asked.

“In my bag.” Alphys admitted “Wherever that is.”

“I was joking, but good to know.”

“I didn't know you had a sense of humour.”

“Occasionally.”

There was a loud metallic 'thud' down the hallway, making them both freeze. It sounded like a door to the fire escape closing. They both listened. Sure enough, someone was coming down the stairs, their footsteps resounding like metal-on-metal. The metal of armoured shoes, or...? In the gloom before them, they could barely make out the outline of a tall figure.

“The guard?” Fells whispered.

The figure turned their head. The light of a single pink iris could be seen in the dark.

“Not the guard!” Alphys cried.

They both turned to run in the other direction, but got no more than a few steps before the robot had caught them. He knocked Dr Fells hard in the side, throwing her into the wall, and grabbed Alphys by the arm, pushing her back to the ground. Alphys quickly covered her mouth again, looking up at her creation.

He was damaged, but not significantly: one of his arms was torn off at the elbow, but everything else was merely cosmetic damage.

“I-I-I-I-I-I don't don't understand what you're trying to ache-che-che-cheive!” Mettaton yelled, his voice glitching out “Thi-thi-this isn't part of the plo-o-o-o-o-ot.”

“Metta...”

He grinned at hearing her call his name. If his smile was unhinged before, it was downright insane now.

“A-A-A-Alphys,” he said “We're at our final a-a-a-aa-a-act.”

“What are you gonna do?” she dared ask, shrinking as far away from him as the wall would allow.

Looking around briefly, Mettaton saw a jagged piece of metal in the remains of his one ruined arm: taking it firmly in his remaining hand, and pulled it clear with a pained grunt, creating a jagged strip of metal.

“It's a little re-re-re-re-retrograde.” he said “But if you-you-you-you won't get your revenge, I-I-I will.”

Alphys held her breath, heart pounding in her ears. Luckily for her, Mettaton turned on a rousing Dr Fells, grabbing her by the front of the shirt. She opened her eyes just as he bought the shiv close to her face.

“I'm going to make you look as ugly as you made Alphys feel.” he told her darkly.

Dr Fells gave up the fight. She had nothing left: she could only look in horror as the shiny metal inched closer to her pretty face.

“Stop!”

Mettaton stopped on Alphys' order, turning to face her.

The doctor had struggled to her feet, still holding her sleeve over her face, but shouted as loud as the acrid smoke would let her.

“Leave her alone, Mettaton.” she ordered “I don't want revenge, ironic or otherwise!”

“But-but-but-but,” he glitched “She made you so-so-so-so miserable!”

“And now she's lost everything,” she pointed out “The only man she ever loved, her step-sons, the career she spent so long building – that's enough! Don't hurt her any more!”

“Alphys...”

All the anger drained from Mettaton's face. He smiled warmly, shuffling over and curling his arm around her waist.

“Alphys, you're too good for this rotten world.” he cooed.

They had to get back upstairs: this smoke was going to kill them!

“Mettaton, we need to go back upstairs.” she pleaded.

“Why?” he asked, looking up at her with big eyes “Walking away from a fire, post explosion, hand in hand... it's that a great ending?”

“I-it is.” Alphys agreed, mind racing “But, you know... even after that, stuff happens, right?”

“It does?”

“Y-yeah...”

Oh Angel, oh no.

“A-After the action movie ends...” she went on, with the reluctance of a receding glacier “C-comes the... porn...”

It took Mettaton a second, but he figured out where she was going with that train of thought, a Cheshire cat grin spreading on his face.

“Oh.” he replied happily.

“B-but not here!” she insisted “And you have to leave Dr Fells alone!”

“Whatever you want, Darling.” he agreed.

His legs whirred as he stood, betraying how worn he had gotten in such a short amount of time.

“The stairs are this way.” he pointed out.

Sharing one final look with Dr Fells, Alphys followed him. She had to think... her opportunities to escape were few. How long was five minutes? He was starting to sway on his feet. Would climbing the stairs wear him out? Alphys couldn't outrun him, but...

Ascending the stairs, Alphys spotted a slither of light coming from the door that led to the foyer. The royal guard was out there. She couldn't outrun him, but she may not have to. She braced herself to sprint as they reached it, only to have Mettaton stop in front of her. Looking up, she saw him smiling down at her lovingly.

“W-what's wrong?” she asked.

“Alphys, Alphys, Alphys.” he said “Darling, did you forget?”

He stopped smiling.

“I'm a learning program.”

Alphys shrieked and instinctively ducked as something sliced through the air far too close to her face. He still had the shard! Why hadn't she noticed?!

“I'll make you so ugly that n-n-n-n-no-one else wants you.” he said darkly “Then you-you-you'll be begging for the new body that I made you.”

Alphys' back hit the wall. In a second she had spun around and ran for the door, throwing it open with a resounding 'clang'. She was too slow, one of Mettaton's long legs swinging around and tripping her. Gripping his shard with his teeth, he grabbed Alphys' tail, pulling her back into the gloom, and spinning her around to face him.

He sat on her legs to pin her down, pressing his broken arm on her neck, and took the shiv from his mouth, raising it high above his head.

“I'm only doing this because I love you!” he yelled “I thought you loved me too!”

Alphys wanted to respond, but the weight on her throat was choking her. She desperately clawed at his arms and chassis, leaving nothing more than scrapes along the metal.

“What about my happy ending?” he asked, tears of oil forming in his eye.

He threw his hand back to strike, Alphys choking out what little scream she could.

“FIRE!”

The air was filled with green and blue as spears rocketed towards them, connecting to their target. The force of them threw Mettaton back, Alphys gasping and spluttering as her breath returned to her.

“FIRE!”

With another volley, Mettaton was thrown back into the stairwell. His other arm was severed, his head nearly decapitated, as he struggled to support not just his weight, but the weight of the projectiles that ran through him.

“FIRE!”

The last round threw him back completely, pinning him to the wall. Oil poured from him freely, parts of his torso spilling out like offal. He looked around him at the gathered royal guards, eyes wide and confused, distressed like a child whose whole world had been turned upside down. Finally, he turned to Alphys.

“Was I the bad guy?”

The pink light in his iris went out. Any tension in his body disappeared, his legs going limp, his being held aloft by nothing but the spears.

There was silence. Nothing moved.

“Don't touch him!” Alphys yelled at the royal guard who edged toward the door “There's still a couple of minutes before his circuits fry. And don't turn the power back on!”

The guard opened his mouth to argue, but was interrupted.

“You heard the doctor.” Dee said with authority, kneeling down to help her “Don't touch that thing. Go look for survivors.”

“Yes, ma'am!” came the chorus of guards, all disappearing off in different directions.

Everything in Alphys' body hurt as Dee helped her sit up. She hadn't been through this much trauma since she was born, and she was not having a good time.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“You can thank bones over there.” Dee said with a smile, pointing back to the main entrance.

Looking over, Alphys' heart lifted: Papyrus, dressed in his security guard uniform, was putting a blanket over Undynes shoulders to comfort her as she held a coffee in her hands. On the ground, Sans told a bad joke as the guard healer patched up his wounds.

“He said he got your message.” Dee elaborated “When he couldn't get ahold of anyone in the building, he called us. He saved you.”

“Sounds about right.” Alphys laughed.

Perhaps having heard her, Sans looked over. He was badly beaten up, but nothing that wouldn't heal in time. He smiled, giving her a weak wave. She returned it, allowing Dee to help her to her feet. Before joining the others, Alphys took one last look at her creation.

She couldn't help but feel miserable. Guilty, terrible, anxious, dirty... so many horrible things. Body still hurting, she shuffled forward, back into the gloom, and faced him one final time. His face still looked so sad and confused.

“I'm sorry, Mettaton.” she said quietly “For whatever it's worth now... I loved you too...”

She took one final look, turned around, and went back into the light.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT. IS. DOOOONNNEEEEE!!
> 
> The only thing better than writing the opening words of a story is writing the final words. For the few of you who followed along with this story - sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience! For those who pick it up at any point in the future - I hope you enjoy. This was fun for me to write for a lot of reasons, and I sincerely hope at least some of you found it entertaining.
> 
> With that in mind, please don't forget to leave a review!


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